Kimberley Haas reports:

Personal information for close to 160 volunteers in Dover’s school district — including their fingerprint cards and social security numbers — was “mistakenly destroyed” this fall, according to city officials.

Between early September and the beginning of last month, a janitor working for S.J. Services in Danvers, Mass., bagged up numerous postmarked envelopes to be sent to the state for background checks, and walked them out to the Dumpster. Inside the envelopes was personal biographical information for each volunteer, as well as checks made out to the state.