Fingerprint Failure

I went in to the Dublin Schools District Office today to get fingerprinted, again. As a teacher in Arizona, I was required to get an FBI fingerprint clearance card. Interestingly, these expire. I don't know for sure, but my best guess as to the reason behind multiple fingerprint checks isn't because anyone's fingerprints change but because our criminal history might. Teaching is not the only profession that requires fingerprint clearance, and my guess is that all of us have to have this joyful experience repeated as long as we work in public service or with children. Maybe I'm not a criminal when they hire me, so they better check again every few years and see if any juicy tidbits show up during the background check.
Despite going through the process of getting fingerprinted three times before, today's experience was entirely new. The first and second time I went to a school district office in Arizona and had the traditional ink and roll fingerprinting. The third time I went to a police station in the Chelsea area of New York City. Though the environment was quite a change, I still inked and rolled. Today, I discovered that there is new technology (gasp!) that can scan my fingerprints right into a computer. Unfortunately, the computer can decide that any given scan isn't good enough, and my fingers failed. After scanning the right four fingers, the left four fingers, and the two thumbs together, the computer labeled all of them as "poor." The woman scanning my fingers was very nice about it. We tried again, then put on Cornhuskers lotion that was supposed to help the prints show up better. Nope. I washed my hands and tried again. No go. More lotion. Strike five. Another woman came over and tried to help apply appropriate pressure to my fingers as I pressed on the scanner. Finally, they put me out of my misery and said I should go home and moisturize my hands like crazy and come back on Friday. I felt guilty that I had failed at getting fingerprinting and then frustrated that technology trumped me once again. For all the advances that it brings, technology must bring twice as many headaches.