The Bowling Green City Schools Board of Education has amended its policy to require anyone who is not directly employed by the district to undergo a background check.

Board of education members approved the amendment 4-0 at a special meeting Thursday. Member Tracy Hovest attended the meeting virtually and could not vote.

The action comes after it became known a strength coach hired by a third-party vendor was convicted of a sex offense as a teen.

“We talked at great length about areas we thought we could provide improvement to our policy, and provided that information to our legal counsel,” said board member Ginny Stewart about conversations she had with the district’s human resources department.

Stewart, who is policy liaison for the board, read the changes.

The amended to the board’s Criminal History Record Check for Contracted School Services section of its policy includes:

“Any person who is not an employee of the board or an employee of a private company under contract to provide essential school services who wishes to work with a student or student group … on the board’s property shall be required to submit to a criminal background check including information from the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

If the background check shows a person has been convicted or has pleaded guilty to any offenses described in Ohio Revised Code 3319.39 (B)(1), the person will not be permitted to work with BGCS students on school property, the amendment states.

That revised code reads except as provided in rules adopted by the department of education in accordance with division (E) of this section and as provided in division (B)(3) of this section, no board of education of a school district, no governing board of an educational service center, and no governing authority of a chartered nonpublic school shall employ a person if the person previously has been convicted of or pleaded guilty to any of the following: murder, felonious assault, menacing, kidnapping, rape, solicitation, voyeurism, disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, pandering obscenity or sexually oriented matter involving a child or impaired person, burglary, endangering children, carrying a concealed weapon, and more.

Zachary Gibson, a former strength coach at the high school, had been sentenced in November 2010 in Hardin County Municipal Court for disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, a misdemeanor offense, after being arrested in a park restroom when village police were alerted to text messages Gibson, who was 18 at the time, had sent a 14-year-old boy.

Gibson, of Bowling Green, was never employed directly by the school district. He was let go on April 4 by Fastrak Performance after the company was notified of unspecified allegations.

He was indicted in June by a Wood County grand jury for two counts of sexual battery, both third-degree felonies; two counts of illegal use of minor or impaired person in nudity-oriented material or performance, both fifth-degree felonies; and attempted illegal use of minor or impaired person in nudity-oriented material or performance, also a fifth-degree felony.

According to the indictment, Gibson allegedly engaged in sexual conduct with the same 16-year-old while he was a coach “or otherwise in a position of temporary or occasional disciplinary control over the boy.”

Gibson, who is 30, is also accused of possessing or viewing material or performance that shows a minor in a state of nudity.

The offenses reportedly occurred on or about March 1-April 30.

Gibson worked with Bowling Green High School basketball and baseball team members as a strength and conditioning coach. He was employed through Fastrak Performance.

The indictment does not specify where the alleged offenses occurred.

As an independent contractor, Bowling Green schools paid Fastrak Performance, located in Perrysburg, who then paid Gibson. Background checks are not always conducted on independent contractors, a company spokesman said in April.

Under the board’s policy, no person employed by a private company can work for the board unless it meets one of the following: A private company provide proof that a criminal records check has been conducted within the last five years in accordance with any applicant who has applied to the school district, or any routine interaction with a student is conducted in the presence of a district employee.

Superintendent Francis Scruci pointed out in the existing policy, it states as long as employees of the district are supervising and these people aren’t left alone, it’s fine.

“As was the case earlier this year, we followed board policy,” he said. “That clause … says as long as there are employees who have met the qualifications, they’re supervised.”

The policy became effective immediately, which caused Hovest to question its impact on the volleyball team’s intent to have an outside company come in this week.

She wondered if there will be enough time for them to make arrangements, if necessary.

“They will have to be informed as soon as possible and comply with the policy,” Stewart said.

Typically, outside agencies already have those background checks on file, said board member Ryan Myers.

Hovest also asked if there would be any changes to the administrative guidelines to incorporate the changes in this policy.

“At this time, that has not been decided but we will certainly look into that,” said board President Jill Carr.

“This gives us a formula to follow but we can do more than that,” said board member Norm Geer. “We can just say our policy right now is we’re not going to have anybody have contact with kids unless they have a background check, period.”

Third-party vendors are required to do a background check, he said.

“We’re just making sure they do it,” Geer said. “And if they don’t do it, they can’t be with our kids.”