Hi there, I was recently offered a position as a sports coach with a club team that is ran by a school district in my town. I am starting the process for hiring but had some questions. I will not be a teacher and will technically be a part time temp employee with the school district as a coach since the club team is owned by the school district. The role does not require any Texas teaching certification, but I still have to go through the finger printing process with the school district since the club team practices at a district owned facility and is a part of the district. In 2020, I was a designated driver for some friends going to a concert in downtown Austin. I was not intoxicated nor had I smoked anything but one of my friends had marijuana in my car that was less than 2 ounces. I accidentally took a wrong turn being stressed out down a one way street going the wrong way for a moment before I realized, however I was pulled over. The cop had reasonable cause to search my car because of the smell. Since it was in my friends bag and not on her person it was considered to be mine since the bag had to be left in the car and it was found. Since I was driving my car, the responsibility fell on me. My friend admitted at the scene that it was hers, so the cop didn’t arrest me at all and only wrote a cite and release ticket for the incident. The case was later dismissed and no charges came of it. Again, this was in 2020, and I do not keep that friend as company any more and have completely moved to a new area of Texas and re-evaluated who I keep in my life and allow in my car. With the extensive background search that they do, I know this will probably show up when I go through finger printing (I was not arrested or finger printed when issued the citation). However, when I was completing the application, it asked about felonies and misdemeanors but only asking if I had been convicted which I was not.
Do you think in this situation my offer will be rescinded to coach the club team since I will be in district facilities when doing it and interacting with district and non district kids on a team that is partially owned by the district? I won’t be coaching at all during school hours and it is strictly a club team, but I still have to go through the district hiring process.
I was going to disclose the situation on my application, however there was no place to elaborate or disclose it at all.
Thanks for any advice or suggestions on this matter. I understand that it was really selfish to allow my friend in the car knowing she had that in her bag for the concert, but at the time I was younger than I am now and not really concerned about it since I wasn’t using it. I didn’t want to be the Debbie downer friend saying no to her in that situation, now I totally would after the experience.
Side note: I’ve passed multiple background checks for other jobs with this on my record, but these jobs were not associated to the school district in any way…