Dive Summary:
- If a Pennsylvania appeals court ruling made this month in the case of a Temple University applicant with a juvenile court "referral" for disseminating child pornography is upheld, Pennsylvania colleges could soon find out about records that students who went through juvenile proceedings thought were sealed.
- The amount of information made available about an applicant's disciplinary record has been a long-debated topic by high school guidance counselors and college admissions officers, with some believing that colleges deserve to know the risks they may face and others believing juvenile behavior shouldn't be allowed to hurt college dreams.
- A 2010 report by the Center for Community Alternatives argued that if colleges do want to consider criminal records, they should only consider felony convictions.
From the article:
When S.D., the initials used in court records to describe him anonymously, applied for admission to Temple University in 2011, he answered "No" to the question on the application about whether he had ever been convicted of a crime. What he didn't say (and wasn't asked about) was a juvenile "referral" for disseminating child pornography. ...