Safe at Schools

Sex offender pleads guilty to 2009 kidnap attempt

2010-10-26T19:10:00.002-04:00

A registered sex offender accused of trying to kidnap a 9-year-old girl in Valencia Park last year as she walked to school, pleaded guilty Monday to felony charges.

Ieremia Tuiolemotu, 38, who was also accused of exposing himself to a 17-year-old girl in City Heights, agreed to a 20-year prison sentence for his crimes.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Frank Brown The judge scheduled Tuiolemotu’s sentencing hearing for Nov. 29.

Life perhaps?

How should we keep our kids safe?

2010-03-12T11:11:00.003-05:00

After watching the horrifying news of Chelsea King the past few weeks we have learned that Registered Sex Offenders, like John Albert Gardner, don't really have that many restrictions. We have also learned that many have multiple offenses with only slap on the wrist punishments.

I have stumbled across a blog whose main view is stopping child molesters after the first time, by locking them up for good. Go over and check out www.stopchildmolesters.blogspot.com

Maybe a one strike law is exactly what this country needs.

Sex Offender Arrested in Attempted Elementary School Kidnapping

2010-01-18T13:02:00.001-05:00

Alamogordo authorities say a man has been arrested in connection with an attempted kidnapping at an elementary school.

Timothy McKearney was taken into custody Friday in Tularosa after the Alamogordo Department of Public Safety issued an arrest warrant for him.

They say McKearney was a registered sex offender in Vermont. Alamogordo authorities are working with state police to determine whether McKearney had to register as a sex offender when he moved to New Mexico.

Police Arrest Sex Offender On School Property

2010-01-18T13:00:00.000-05:00

Police arrested Charles Harris after finding him parked in the parking lot of an elementary school in Charlotte Thursday.

Officers said Harris was parked at Wingate Park Elementary and charged him with sex offender unlawfully on school property.

According to police, Harris is registered as a sex offender in Gaston County.

By law, Harris is not allowed on school property.

sex offender went to elementary school

2009-10-17T13:45:00.000-04:00

Louisana - Stephen Blackburn, 32, of 604 Gary St., Pineville, was arrested by deputies on a charge of failure to register as a sex offender. Sex offenders are not allowed to enter school property without the permission of the superintendent and principal.

No loitering within 300 feet of town or state park for sex offenders

2009-10-17T13:14:00.001-04:00

If Town Meeting passes a bylaw restricting where Level 3 sex offenders may legally live in town, legislators will also be restricting where these felons may legally loiter.
“It shall be unlawful for a sex offender who has been convicted of a sex offense involving a child to knowingly be present in any town or state park.” The restriction, if passed, would also prohibit these offenders from being within 300 feet of a town or state park. The added section on loitering does not, however, specifically address loitering in the vicinity of a school or daycare center and makes no mention of protections for the elderly.

Under the language of the proposed bylaw, police would be given the authority to enforce the loitering provisions, and violators would be slapped with a $300 non-criminal fine for every day they are in violation.

Another registered sex offender arrested at elementary school

2009-10-02T18:42:00.002-04:00

Bruce Ivester Housley, 46, of Post Oak Road, Cookeville, was arrested Tuesday by Putnam Sheriff's Detective Jimmy Patterson after he allegedly dropped off a child at Northeast Elementary School.

The child is not Housley's biological child, and the detective said he also learned that Housley had "previously transported the child to and from the school on three other dates." Housley is also charged with violating sex offender residential restrictions by "living on the same property as two minor children" who are not his biological children, according to one warrant on file in the case.

Tennessee state law forbids registered sex offenders from being on school premises when children are present.

Convicted Sex Offender Accused In New Case

2009-09-30T20:26:00.002-04:00

One strike law perhaps?

A former Clark County educator, convicted of sex crimes against a student, is in trouble with the law again.

Timothy Mattern is accused of inappropriately contacting an underage girl 146 times in four days. (this is the obsessive trait I talked about before)

Mattern was convicted of sexual battery against a student eight years ago, and now authorities believe that he was traveling down a similar path with another young girl.

Phyllis Locke of Clark County said, “I’m appalled that we have someone in this community that continues to mess with our children.”

Parents in Clark County are angered to learn that Mattern, a Tier II sex offender, is accused of inappropriate contact with another young girl.

Mattern, a former counselor and coach, was convicted in 2001 of sexual battery against a student at Shawnee High School. He served three years in jail and was forced to register as a sex offender. (only 3 years!)

In August, parents of another young girl got a protection order against Mattern, claiming that he was in an inappropriate relationship with their daughter.

Sheriff Gene Kelly said, “He continued to violate that order and in a period of five days he made more than 140 calls and texts to this female child.”

Prosecutors charged Mattern with five counts of violating a protection order, each day that he contacted her.

Sheriff Kelly said Mattern met the girl at different school and church functions. He said his office is especially concerned because the case is looking a lot like the first one.

“He’s following the same pattern as the previous conviction. So we are trying to keep this man away from the child,” Kelly said.

Parents like Locke said this incident proves how adults have to take an active role in their children’s lives.

Locke said, “You have to step up and be in school and know who your kids are around."

Kelly said the investigation is still open and very active. Depending on what detectives learn about the relationship between Mattern and the juvenile, more charges could be filed.

Sex offender arrested, accused of abducting 9-year-old girl on way to school

2009-09-27T16:58:00.002-04:00

A sex offender kidnapped a 9-year-old girl as she walked to a bus stop last week, held her at knife-point and kept her tied up in a closet before releasing her unharmed hours later, according to court documents obtained Saturday.

An arrest affidavit said Charles Eugene Butcher, 42, put a knife to the girl's throat shortly after the kidnapping Thursday morning along Brodie Lane in South Austin and told her that he would cut her if she didn't stop screaming.

Police said that Butcher appeared to have randomly selected the girl and that it remained unclear Saturday what prompted her release.

According to public records and published reports, Butcher was convicted in September 1995 in Ohio of abduction and received parole in 2004 with special conditions that he not be around children.

DayCare Concerned About Neighboring Sex Offender

2009-09-27T16:52:00.003-04:00

Mercer worries that the future of her registered home day care could be in jeopardy because Kevin Stanley-- a convicted sex offender-- moved into the home across the street in June.

Court records show Stanley was forced to move out of his former home in St. Albans as a probation condition after he was convicted of exposing himself to two neighborhood children and peeping into the windows of a teenage girl next door.

So Mercer was shocked when she learned Stanley had the permission of his probation officer to move into her neighborhood. She says the probation officer told her he drove through the neighborhood and saw little sign of any children, but she wonders how he could have missed the play sets behind almost every home, and state websites that show 40 school kids reside here and there are two home day cares services including hers.

"I have to have fire extinguishers; I have to have a number of exits; I have to have a certain training: all these things to keep the children safe. And then they don't keep me or the children safe by allowing somebody to move across the street like that," Mercer said.

Robert Swoopes Seen Near School Bus Stop

2009-09-27T16:41:00.001-04:00

Bellevue police said a registered sex offender was arrested Friday morning after a confrontation with police officers.

Police said they responded to a report that Swoopes had been hanging around a school bus stop. They said when they went to Swoopes’ home to talk to him, Swoopes drove off in his car.

Swoopes was part of a story earlier this week on KETV NewsWatch 7. Parents of children at Bellevue’s Leonard Lawrence elementary school were concerned because Swoopes was seen on the school’s property.

Court: Schools can ban sex offenders

2009-09-19T09:41:00.000-04:00

School boards — not judges — have the final say about whether violent sex offenders or anyone else comes onto school property, according to a Supreme Court of Virginia opinion handed down Friday.

The opinion, which was written by Justice Barbara Milano Keenan, reverses a decision from the Charlottesville Circuit Court allowing a sex offender to come onto Charlottesville public school property under certain conditions.Stacy Haney, a Richmond-based lawyer who represents the city’s School Board, said school supervision is vested in local school boards under the state’s Constitution. Haney said the Supreme Court’s opinion would be far-reaching.

Under state code, sexually violent offenders are prohibited from entering public or private school or daycare center property unless they attend the school, vote there or have a court order.

A troll is a troll

2009-08-27T20:43:00.004-04:00

I now understand your problem. You don't know the meaning of "STOP".

That is the problem with most sex offenders. They cannot control their compulsions. Because you have no self control, you should never be allowed around children again, period.

I told you to scram and I meant it.

Next time I won't be so nice.

I know who you are

2009-07-30T18:42:00.003-04:00

This is for someone...they know who they are.

Why do you keep coming here?

Why do you search for your name?

Guilty as charged I figure. You can fool some of the people some of the time but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.

Get lost scumbag.

Ohio House holds first hearing on HB 13

2009-03-05T19:09:00.001-05:00

COLUMBUS -- Two bills that would increase penalties against sex offenders who live or enter areas near schools and other areas frequented by children had their first hearing in the Ohio House on Wednesday.

House Bill 11 would establish criminal penalties for individuals who live too close to schools, recreation centers and would establish a means for courts to remove those individuals from their residences.

House Bill 13 would prohibit certain sex offenders from being on school, pre-school or day-care center properties and would establish criminal penalties for those who break the law.

The Democratic sponsors of both bills spoke before the House's criminal justice committee Wednesday.

Rep. Tracy Maxwell Heard, from the Columbus area, offered HB 11 after hearing from constituents about the disproportionate number of known offenders who were allowed to live near schools.

Removing them from those premises requires a lengthy civil process, she said.

"(T)he violation itself is merely an infraction of a civil statute and therefore it requires a suit be brought, court dates, etc., and law enforcement has very little leverage to actually make a violator move until such time as a case is determined and the offender is deemed in violation," Heard said.

HB 13 is aimed at keeping sex offenders who have preyed on children away from schools, said Rep. Jennifer Garrison, a Democrat from Marietta and one of the primary sponsors of the legislation.

Offenders would be banned from school properties; any found guilty of breaking the law would face six-12 months in jail.

According to Garrison's testimony, "There are over 14,000 Tier III sex offenders residing in Ohio, including those currently serving sentences. And it is unconscionable that our children currently have no protection in their schools from those who would do them harm."

New charges for sex offender haning around schools

2009-03-02T18:57:00.001-05:00

New charges have been filed against a Norton Shores sex offender accused of hanging out near an elementary school.

Darwin Michael Brown, 44, of 5982 Lake Harbor was arrested Wednesday and arraigned Thursday before visiting 60th District Judge Richard J. Pasarela in four misdemeanor cases: three of being a sex offender loitering near a school, and one of failing to pay a sex-offender registration fee. According to court records, the dates of the alleged loitering were April 1, Oct. 7 and Oct. 31 last year.

An earlier loitering case, based on an October incident near Churchill Elementary, was dismissed Feb. 20 "for further investigation."

Brown, a registered sex offender, was released from prison in December 2007 after serving time for third-degree criminal sexual conduct. He was a part-time firefighter with Norton Shores when the incident with a 14-year-old boy occurred in 1994. Authorities said Brown used his position to lure the boy into several sex acts.

Sex offender arrested at Lombard Middle School

2009-02-28T11:24:00.001-05:00

A convicted and registered child sex offender was arrested Thursday night while she was attending a spaghetti supper at Lombard Middle School.

Merita A. Smith, 34, 960 S. Seminary St., was arrested at the school at 1220 E. Knox St. at about 6:30 p.m. on three outstanding warrants including purchase of a meth precursor, failure to report change of address as a sex offender, a failure to appear warrant on a theft charge and a $120 body attachment.

Friday morning, police charged Smith with presence within a school zone, a Class 4 felony offense punishable by one to three years in prison.

Sex offender was on grounds of the Downtown Middle School

2009-02-28T11:10:00.000-05:00

A convicted sex offender was arrested yesterday morning for being on the grounds of the Downtown Middle School four times in recent weeks, the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office said.

Elbert Otis Jeffries Jr., 26, of 4142 Old Lexington Road, faces four counts of being a sex offender on school premises.

The Sheriff's Office said a probation officer told them Wednesday that Jeffries had been on the school grounds four times between Feb. 12 and Tuesday.

Jeffries is being monitored by a GPS tracking device that shows his location at all times. It was part of his sentence when he was convicted in 2006 of indecent liberties with a minor.

Jeffries is being held at the Forsyth County Jail with bond set at $15,000.

School volunteer has molest conviction

2009-02-27T17:58:00.001-05:00

San Diego schools officials will review their policies for background checks on volunteers after they learned a 63-year-old sex offender had worked with music students for months.

Vincent Greco, a volunteer music teacher at the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts, was arrested Sunday on suspicion of failing to register as a sex offender, police said.

Sex-crimes detectives were notified last week about possible inappropriate conduct between Greco and a student at the SCPA, said San Diego police Lt. Rick O'Hanlon. Police would not say who tipped them.

Vigo schools working on sex offender policy

2009-02-27T17:55:00.002-05:00

TERRE HAUTE

The policy states that, except in limited circumstances, the school district “will not permit registered sex offenders, whose victim was a minor, to be on school property.”

The school district has at times received reports that a registered sex offender attended a school event, such as a festival or other after-school activity.

State law doesn’t prohibit registered sex offenders from visiting a school, Azar said. State law does prevent them from working at a school or living within so many feet of a school.

“We were advised if we wanted to make school grounds off limits, we would need to have a policy” that can be enforced, Ray Azar, director of student services said.

Sex offender charged after visiting school

2009-02-27T17:52:00.000-05:00

http://www.the-dispatch.com/article/20090219/ARTICLES/902190287/1053/SPORTS

A man on the North Carolina Sex Offender Registry was arrested after authorities were told the man was on an elementary school campus, said a press release by the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office.

Kenneth Wayne Smith, 41, of 937 Willowmore Spring Road, was charged Wednesday with one count of registered sex offender on school property.

Smith was put on the registry after a Nov. 15, 2007, conviction in Davidson County of assisting another with immoral acts against a juvenile. Under North Carolina law, sex offenders are prohibited from school property.

Campus sex offender ban passes House

2009-02-18T22:49:00.000-05:00

The Alabama House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a ban on sex offenders living or loitering near college campuses.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jamie Ison, now goes to the Senate, where that measure and many others approved by the House last year failed.

Ison's bill would prohibit convicted sex offenders from living in college dorms or within 2,000 feet of a campus. Sex offenders would be allowed to take classes at colleges and universities, but they could only be on campus if they had a "legitimate purpose," the bill prescribes.

Sex Offender Let In School

2009-02-18T22:45:00.001-05:00

A convicted sex offender was let into Canistota Public School.

Right now, McCook County Sheriff Mark Norris is investigating and a rural Canistota mom wants to know why it happened in the first place.

According to South Dakota's Sex Offender Registry, 41-year-old Darin Nugteren was convicted of sexual contact three months ago. His conviction involved a 15-year-old girl.

Sex Offender Hired at Nursery School

2009-02-13T22:02:00.002-05:00

A pastor in Bethesda is under fire for hiring a convicted sex offender to work in a nursery school despite knowing his history.

Forty families who send their children to the Bethesda Cooperative Nursery School were stunned to learn that the friendly man who fixed things around the school had once served time for possession of child pornography. The man, Travis Buffington, also lives on the grounds of the school, just feet from the playground. But that's only part of the story.

Parents were also shocked to learn that the pastor of the church is defending his actions, telling them he has no regrets for hiring Buffington. In a meeting Wednesday night, one parent described said Pastor Todd Thomas said he didn’t' see Buffington as a threat, so they shouldn't either. He told parents he has no intentions of firing Buffington, and that's a
decision that has some parents pulling their kids out of the school.

Ya think? I suppose any parent who cared about their child would pull them out of that school. I mean, why take a chance with your own child with someone who has known pedophilia tendencies!

Sex offender arrested after police say he roamed the halls of school

2009-02-13T22:00:00.000-05:00

Police have arrested a registered sex offender after he got into Louisville’s collegiate school.

Police say that Dwayne Edward Gough was roaming the halls at the school and stole a book.

When officers arrived police say the suspect was in the parking lot and had alarmed students and staff.

Edward faces burglary charges.

Sex offender’s bid for school councils raises questions

2009-02-13T21:55:00.002-05:00

A registered sex offender was on the ballot this week for two Simpson County Site-Based Decision Making Council elections, raising concern among parents and educators and possibly spurring new state legislation.

Simpson County Superintendent Jim Flynn said Thursday that it was brought to his attention that a parent of children in the system, who was on the federal sex offender registry, was running for a position on the council that makes policy and decisions affecting the school.

Flynn said when he learned of the situation Thursday, he contacted school board attorneys and was advised there was nothing in the law “that prohibits or disqualifies a registered sex offender from holding (or being considered for) elected positions on SBDM councils.”

While stiff rules are in place requiring the screening of school volunteers from having contact or supervisory roles with students if they are convicted felons, nothing bars them from being elected into positions.

Kentucky law also prohibits sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school, playground or day care facility, but says nothing about being on school grounds or serving in roles such as PTOs.

Bill would bar some sex offenders from school grounds

2009-02-13T21:50:00.001-05:00

LITTLE ROCK — Convicted sex offenders deemed to be a “Level 2” danger of being a repeat offender would not be allowed on school grounds under a bill recommended by the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

Without dissent, the panel sent House Bill 1010 by Rep. Donna Hutchinson, R-Bella Vista, to the House floor.

Anyone convicted of a felony sexual offense is assessed by the state under a system that rates the future danger they pose on a scale of one to four, with four being the most dangerous. Level 3 and 4 offenders are already barred from school grounds.

Hutchinson told the committee that Level 2 offenders, their spouses and sympathizers have called and asked her not to pursue the bill, saying people can change and have sometimes “found Jesus.” She urged the panel members to be cautious and realize that not all turnarounds are real.

“I think Jesus can change lives. Unfortunately, he doesn’t turn us lime green when he does” to show it, Hutchinson said.

Long Island High School AIDS scare

2009-02-02T22:23:00.002-05:00

DA Seeks Alleged Victims of Infected Sex Offender
Concerned parents packed a Brentwood, N.Y., high school after learning a convicted sex offender with AIDS may have been around local children.
At Thursday night's meeting at Brentwood High School Superintendent Donna Jones said she had been told that Robert Musmacker may have had direct sexual contact with nearly 20 students.

New York authorities say a registered sex offender with AIDS is charged with reckless endangerment after being found during a traffic stop with a 16-year-old boy in his car.

The district attorney and police believe the boy may have been one of several victims with whom the suspect engaged in illegal sexual activity.

Musmaker's 1991 sodomy conviction required him to register as a Level 3 sex offender.

Gov. Jindal announces sex offense legislation

2009-02-02T22:16:00.002-05:00

If a day care owner knowingly allows a registered sex offender to come onto the facility's property, that owner could be charged with a crime and face prison time, according to a proposed law by Gov. Bobby Jindal.

His words came about a month after a local day care owner's son, a registered sex offender, was arrested after being accused of sex crimes with children at the facility.

Other proposals listed by the governor would strengthen many existing sex offender laws, such as making some of the most violent sex offenders submit to psychiatric evaluation after their prison and parole terms end. If a psychiatric evaluator determined the offender was likely to commit a crime again, the change would mean a district attorney could request indefinite, forced evaluation of that person until he or she was deemed to be no longer a threat.

"If you are a monster who preys on children you better not be in Louisiana," Jindal said.

Great job Gov. Jindal!

Temecula panel backs sex offender rules

2009-02-02T22:09:00.001-05:00

A Temecula panel Thursday night threw its support behind a law to bar registered sex offenders from living near schools, parks and child day care centers.

Supported by city police, the ordinance would add teeth in Temecula to Jessica's Law, a statewide law passed by voters in 2006 that makes it illegal for offenders to reside near schools and parks.

The ordinance comes as Murrieta prepares to give final approval to its own sex offender law. The ordinance would prohibit any offender from loitering within 300 feet of a school, park or place where children gather.

San Antonio Teen Assaulted On The Way To School

2009-02-02T22:03:00.003-05:00

Another post from www.keepschoolssafe.org

Again, I want to say first that I do not want to be an alarmist but after reading the news report on what happened to a young San Antonio girl while walking to school, I feel that the word should be spread as much as possible. According to My SA News, a 15-year-old girl was walking to school when she was approached by a man who then put a knife to her throat. The online news report has more details:

Police Chief William McManus said the victim, a 15-year-old, was walking
near Vista Nogal Street just north of the school when a man approached,
brandished a knife and demanded she give him her cell phone.

The man then changed his mind, put the knife to the student’s throat
and ordered her to take off her clothes, McManus said. The man then sexually
assaulted her in a wide ditch that runs parallel to Vista Nogal.

To be fair to the school and its authorities, they have not turned a blind eye to the situation. As a matter of fact, the school principal of Churchill High School, Jeff Vaughan, immediately sent out letters to parents that day. In the letters sent, he emphasized the importance of reminding the school children of safety habits that they should practice while walking to and from school. This simple move was in fact much appreciated by the parents and I understand quite well how that could be the case. If I were a parent with children going to that school, that move would reassure me that the school is aware of what is going on and that they will not let things slide.
Sending out a letter may seem trivial to some but I think that it is also a representation of how the school authorities address safety issues in general.

One interesting that I noticed in that article is the fact that the parents seem to have utmost confidence in the school authorities. The parents quoted in the article expressed their faith in the school’s safety measures and the people involved as well. I think that this kind of thinking is important. It actually hits two birds with one stone - the authorities feel the sense of responsibility even more and the parents rest assured that everything that can be done is being done. Of course, this is not to say that parents should not be vigilant themselves.

To and From School

2009-01-27T21:40:00.002-05:00

Post from http://www.keepschoolssafe.org/

I don’t mean to sound like an alarmist here but I thought that I should write something about the news reports that I have been reading about incidents near Vista High School in San Diego, California. According to the reports, several men have been trying to sexually assault school girls in the vicinity of the said school. Here is a snippet from Sign On San Diego:

A Vista High School student who was walking to school Wednesday morning was hit by a man who attempted to sexually assault her, and the man had approached another girl moments earlier, the Sheriff’s Department said yesterday.

The 14-year-old Vista student was walking on a dirt path near East Indian Rock Road and Cananea Street about 7 a.m. when the man approached her and asked for a cigarette lighter, Norton said. When she said she did not have one, the man engaged her in conversation, then became forceful and told her to remove her pants, the detective said.

The man tackled her and punched her in the face, Norton said. He fled when he heard people approaching.The victim had a bloody nose and minor facial bruises but was not sexually assaulted, Norton said.

Just before the Vista attack, a man of the same description approached a 15-year-old girl in the same spot on the path and also asked for a lighter, Norton said. He talked to the girl for a while and asked for her phone number. She felt uncomfortable and left, Norton said.

The attacker was described as 17 to 23 years old, white or Latino, 5 feet 7 to 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighing 170 pounds, with hazel eyes. He was wearing blue jeans and a brown hooded sweat shirt.

Aside from these attacks, there was another incident in another area, this time in Lakeside, where a 15-year-old girl was walking to El Capitan High School. This incident involved a man stalking the girl in his car, repeatedly asking her to get in the car. She ran to a nearby 711 and alerted the authorities when the man got out of the car and put his hand on her shoulder.

This kind of news sickens me, it really does. These men are preying on the youth, who have their whole lives ahead of them. How do we stop them? Perhaps by being vigilant and teaching our kids to be the same way. If you see or observe anything remotely suspicious, make sure that you immediately alert authorities – better safe than sorry.

School district changes background check policy

2009-01-23T20:41:00.002-05:00

Anyone who volunteers in Derry schools on a regular basis will have to undergo a complete background check after a convicted sex offender was found to be volunteering at Ernest P. Barka Elementary School for the past four years.

Stephen Cleveland, 69, of 74 Chester Road was convicted of aggravated sexual assault in 1984 and registered with police in November. But it wasn't until last week that Cleveland was told to stay out of the school.

But the incident prompted district officials to change policy and screen every volunteer who enters a school.

"If they're in the building on a regular basis, we are going to start fingerprinting immediately," Hannon said of the district's 700 volunteers.

But some people say the school needs to do even more to protect their children.

Now that Cleveland has been seen around school, children will associate him with being a nice person if they see him in a park or around town unless parents educate their children to the danger, according to Debbie Savoia, a mother and victim rights advocate from North Andover, Mass.

"For the school to say none of these kids are in danger is wrong," Savoia said.

Alleged child molester teaching at Boca Raton school

2009-01-23T20:39:00.001-05:00

Yeah I know I don't normally report teachers who molest but here goes anyway.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, planned a 1 p.m. protest outside a private school west of Boca Raton on Thursday.They allege a teacher at Donna Klein Jewish Academy is a child molester. He is currently being investigated by the NYPD for molesting a boy from 1998-2000 at a camp in New York. He is now teaching at Donna Klein Jewish Academy.

SNAP also said that a civil lawsuit was being filed today.

Are Your Kids Safe from Sex Offenders?

2009-01-22T22:04:00.001-05:00

We’ve made some stunning discoveries about where sex offenders in the Capital City live and why the law can’t touch them. We used a GPS tracker to measure distance and we paired it with the sex offender online database and couldn’t believe what we found. Convicted sex offenders are living less than 500 feet from schools and daycares, all because of a loophole in the current laws.

We went to a number of daycares and schools with a GPS tracker device. We found one sex offender just 216 feet from the school and authorities say it’s all perfectly legal. Besides the sex offender living so close to Banks Elementary, off Florida Blvd. near a daycare, we found a sex offender with a conviction for lewd and lascivious behavior with a child under 14. On Greenwell Springs Rd., there was another daycare within 1,000 feet of a man convicted for carnal knowledge of a juvenile on two separate occasions.

So why aren’t these sex offenders breaking any laws? They were all convicted before 2006. Markus Smith with Louisiana State Police explains, “If an offender was convicted before that date, then they aren’t required to comply with the 1,000 foot law.” This is a loophole in a law designed to protect our kids, but some say it’s letting certain offenders slip through the cracks.

The date isn’t the only loophole. Offenders must have committed certain crimes and victim must be under the age of 13 or they must be on probation.

School Visit Leads to Charges Against Sex Offender

2009-01-22T21:53:00.002-05:00

A convicted sex offender has been charged with being on school property after he and his wife went to Fort Chiswell Middle School on business last Friday.

Jay Lindell Walters Sr., 43, of Grandview Drive in Max Meadows was arrested at his home on Monday.

According to Chief Deputy Keith Dunagan of the Wythe County Sheriff’s Office, Principal Becki James recognized Walters from Virginia State Police information provided to the school. She informed Walters that state law prohibited him from being on school property and asked him to leave.

In the meantime, the Fort Chiswell High School Resource Officer arrived, Dunagan said. Walters then went to his vehicle but returned to apologize, according to the chief deputy, and was told to leave by the Resource Officer.

The officer discussed the incident with the commonwealth’s attorney office, Dunagan reported, and was advised to charge Walters.

Daycare shut down after sex offender found living there

2009-01-22T21:46:00.002-05:00

SEATTLE - A North Seattle daycare was forced to shut down after the state discovered a sex offender was living in the home.

The daycare provider told KING 5 she would never put the children in any danger. But the state says a sex offender had been living with her for months - and parents had no idea.

For three years, Seiri DuPen has been caring for children out of her home. But on Friday she lost her license.

The state says DuPen allowed Patrick Neale Brown, a registered sex offender, to live in her home.

Brown's criminal record includes sex crimes against children in Virginia, possession of heroin and eluding officers in California.

Sex offender arrested for being on Athens Drive campus

2009-01-22T21:44:00.001-05:00

Raleigh police arrested a registered sex offender Friday for going on the campus of Athens Drive High School.

Marcus Jermaine Johnson, 30, of 1312 Arbor Greene Drive, Garner, was on the campus Wednesday, according to the arrest warrant. Johnson faces charges of being a sex offender unlawfully on the premises intended for the care of minors.

Johnson was convicted of incest with a near relative, which is a second-degree sexual offense, in 2005 and of statutory rape, in which he was at least 6 years older than the victim, in 1998, according to the North Carolina Department of Correction.

Johnson also has convictions for common-law robbery, larceny and assault on a policeman.

Sex Offender Allegedly Tries To Lure Girl In Car

2009-01-11T20:17:00.001-05:00

A community is reeling after a man they successfully fought to have classified as a level 3 sex offender was apparently caught trying to lure a girl into his car.

At the time of the alleged incident, he was awaiting trial for a similar crime in North Branch, Minn.

WCCO-TV first told you about repeat sex offender Jeffery Holmgren after he moved next door to a home child care center and a half block from an elementary school.

"He's a danger to society because obviously he can't control himself," said concerned neighbor Ann Trippler.

Mothers in Chisago City -- who've been monitoring Holmgren's behavior since he moved in -- wonder how many more sex crimes he has to commit before the court gets tough.

CMS getting tough with sex offenders

2009-01-11T20:13:00.001-05:00

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is considering a policy to ban all sex offenders from campuses and school events

The school board's three-member policy committee gave preliminary approval this afternoon to the plan. If approved by the full board, it would ban all registered sex offenders – adults or students – from school campuses, bus stops, athletic games, even field trips.

Missing Athens sophomore may have disappeared with registered sex offender

2009-01-11T20:10:00.001-05:00

An Athens High School sophomore, missing since Sunday, is believed to have run away with a registered male sex offender, officials said.

Luke Kemmerle, 15, is thought to have willingly gone with the man, Zachary Wisor of Nelsonville, 22, said Molly Burchfield, a social worker for the Athens Police Department.

The sophomore, 5 feet 3 inches and 110 pounds, is described as being Hispanic with brown eyes and brown hair with red highlights, according to an Athens Police Department report.

At the time of his disappearance, Kemmerle was wearing a white hoodie with a gray design, blue jeans with a patch on the left leg and athletic shoes, said Lt. Dave Williams.

Kemmerle, who was last seen in Athens, also has his upper-right ear pierced and was wearing other jewelry.

Wisor, 5 feet 8 inches and 125 pounds, has blue eyes and brown hair, according to the Ohio Sex Offender Registry.

He was indicted in the Athens Court of Common Pleas in 2005 for illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material or performance involving a young female, according to the Ohio Sex Offender Registry.

Wisor drives an older golden Oldsmobile, Burchfield said.

Whether or not the pair is still in the Athens area is unknown, she said.

Kemmerle was added to the Ohio Attorney General’s Web site Monday night. Amber and trucker alerts were filed yesterday morning and went out that afternoon, Burchfield said.

If anyone has seen Kemmerle or Wisor or has additional information, call APD at 592-3313.

'Let me assure you'

2009-01-07T14:37:00.002-05:00

This is off topic but I came across this post and was very disturbed that Amazon sells such material and that this material is legal!

"Let me assure you that Amazon.com does not support or promote hatred or criminal acts"

So says an Amazon.com form letter, sent on behalf of Amazon President, Jeff Bezos. While Amazon claims not to support or promote criminal acts, they're more than happy to sell (and profit from) books which encourage adults to sexually abuse children.

Let's, for a moment, take time to examine some of the material Jeff Bezos and the people at Amazon like to make their money from:

Daddy's Little Boy

"This is the story of a libidinous 13 year old boy who 'pleases' himself, then teaches his cousin to 'please' him. But the boy's father sees them and finds he is very turned on. At 13, Mason, is beautiful... Mason finds that love he loves his father, truly, deeply emotionally."

The Eleventh Acolyte Reader

"Thirteen more stories about boy-love. Quick-takes: 1) An older schoolboy lets a hero-worshipping younger boy be his "pet." 2) A pubescent boy "comes out" seducing a young boy down the street. 3) A sailor on shore leave finds love in Marrakesh! 4) A determined 12-yr-old boy makes mincemeat out of a man's oath to leave boys alone for a whole year. ETC. 192 pgs."

And probably the most disturbing title (which fortunately is currently unavailable):

It's Okay to Say Yes: Boy-Love & Sex Tourism

"In this vivid, tender, highly erotic, and sometime humorous account, Darling depicts the difference between loving and exploiting Third-World boys in boy-love "scenes" from Asia to South America."

There's only one demented section of society who would be interested buying publications like these. They're people who you would find posting on GirlChat or BoyChat people like baby-rapers Harold Spurling and Jeffrey Brisson, or Robert Vann Smith - getting caught crossing the border to exploit children or even Amazons own Brandon Low for that matter.

Amazon.com as a company lacks any sense of social responsibility, let's take a look at the people behind Amazon making these irresponsible decisions:

You can voice your concern about Amazon.coms position on this matter through the following channels:

aws@amazon.com
webservicesresumes@amazon.com
webservices@amazon.com
seller-performance@amazon.com
seller-suggestions@amazon.com
payments-funds@amazon.com
evangelists@amazon.com
ir@amazon.com

jeff@amazon.com	- Jeffrey P. Bezos, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board
werner@allthingsdistributed.com	- Werner Vogels, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Amazon.com
ajassy@amazon.com	- Andrew Jassy, Senior Vice President, Web Services
stevenk@amazon.com	- Steven Kessell, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Digital Media
marco@amazon.com	- Marc Onetto, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Operations
diegop@amazon.com	- Diego Piacentini, Senior Vice President, International Retail
shelleyr@amazon.com	- Shelley Reynolds, Vice President, Wordwide Controller and Principal Accounting Officer
jwilke@amazon.com or jeffreyw@amazon.com or jeffw@amazon.com	- Jeff Wilke, Senior Vice President, North America Retail
szkutak@amazon.com	- Thomas Szkutak, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
selipsky@amazon.com	- Adam Selipsky, Vice President
rabuchin@amazon.com	- Steve Rabuchin, Director
freed@amazon.com	- Ian Freed, Vice President, Digital
michellew@amazon.com	- Michelle Wilson, Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Secretary
swheeler@amazon.com	- Sam Wheeler, Director, Advertising & Partnerships
bcarr@amazon.com	- Bill Carr, Vice President, Digital Media
jvaria@amazon.com	- Jinesh Varia, Web Services Evangelist
cbodell@yahoo.com	- Colin Bodell, Vice President, Platform Operations of Amazon.com
awseditor@amazon.com	- Mike Culver, Web Services Evangelist
jeff@vertexdev.com or jbarr@amazon.com	- Jeff Barr, Lead Web Services Evangelist
simoneb@amazon.lu or simone.brunozzi@gmail.com	- Simone Brunozzi, European Web Services Evangelist

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/contact-us/general-questions.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=518316&type=email&skip=true#csTop
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-InfoReq
https://www.mturk.com/mturk/contactus?subject=Customer+Support

Let me assure you - the boycott will continue, Boycott Amazon!!

Cross posted from www.absolutezerounited.blogspot.com

Sen. to introduce sexual offender legislation

2009-01-03T10:42:00.001-05:00

Sen. John Douglas (R-Social Circle) has pre-filed legislation that would make it illegal for a registered sex offender to run for office on local school boards.

Douglas said he filed the legislation in response to the spring 2008 attempt by Newton County resident Horace Don Gresham to run for the District 2 seat on the Board of Education. In 1988 in DeKalb County, Gresham was charged with felony sodomy involving a child under the age of 14, a charge that carried a 12-year sentence that had yet to expire before he decided to run for office.

In the face of a public outcry, Gresham withdrew his candidacy before a special hearing could take place to judge his qualifications to run for office.

"It was just intolerable to consider the fact that we could have had a sex offender on our school board having access to our schools," Douglas said. "I don’t think that the voters would ever support a sex offender for school board or any other position but we just want to make sure."

Schools require building visitors surrender IDs

2009-01-01T16:38:00.001-05:00

AUBURN — Visitors entering any of the town’s schools now must leave a driver’s license or other form of government issued picture ID at the office.

The ID is traded for a visitors card, and the ID is returned at the end of the visit.

School officials in several Central Massachusetts communities say they are not considering similar policies, although Leominster Superintendent of Schools Nadine B. Binkley said she has talked to police about participating in a pilot program that would use scanning equipment provided by Raptor Technologies, a company based in Houston.

Ms. Binkley said a visitor would go to the school office and a device would scan the ID to determine whether the visitor was a registered sex offender, domestic dispute offender or had outstanding arrest warrants. For visitors who received cyber-approval, they would receive a badge that contains their name, photo, date and time they went into the school as well as their destination. If the visitor has a record that is flagged on the equipment, authorities would be notified.

Bill seeks to protect kids

2009-01-01T16:34:00.003-05:00

State Rep. Donna Hutchinson filed a proposed state law that seeks to protect children in public schools from registered sex offenders.

In a previous legislative session, in 2007, Hutchinson sponsored Act 992 of 2007, which limits access to public schools for convicted Level 3 and Level 4 sexual offenders.

The new law she will propose, which is House Bill 1010, would keep provisions of the Act 992 of 2007 but expand it, also to prohibit anyone who is a Level 2 registered sex offender from knowingly entering upon a public-school campus .

A state law, the Sex Offender Registration Act of 1997, categorizes sex offenders in four categories: Level 1-low risk offenders; Level 2-moderate risk offenders; Level 3-high risk offenders; and Level 4-sexually violent predators.

"I had some schools call me ... They called and said, You promised us, if it was still a problem you'd introduce (a bill) for the second-level (predators). So, I'm going to keep my promise and introduce (a bill) that (says) second-level predators can't enter school grounds, either," Hutchinson said.

Kiosks stop sex offenders, other threats at the door

2009-01-01T16:31:00.001-05:00

In December 2007, a man showed up at an elementary school in the northern suburbs of Charlotte, N.C., to have lunch with a student. Upon entering the school, he encountered a digital kiosk and followed the sign-in instructions by entering his name and date of birth. As he waited for his visitor’s badge to print, the kiosk notified school officials that the man’s information matched the identity of a registered sex offender. The police were called, and a few minutes later, the man was quietly escorted from the school. He was a registered sex offender.

The kiosk that alerted school officials of the sex offender was manufactured by LobbyGuard Solutions LLC, a Raleigh, N.C.-based provider of visitor-management security systems. Founded in 1999, LobbyGuard was one of the first players in the visitor-management space, and over the years has evolved from a pieced-together PC/touchscreen configuration to the all-in-one kiosk model it unveiled in March 2006 and continues to use today

LobbyGuard updates its database each month, based on public information provided by each state, which usually includes more than 500,000 sex offenders.

The Chesapeake, Va., school district is piloting LobbyGuard at three of its schools, in search of a better way to process visitors and alert school officials when sex offenders enter the premises.

Brian Allen, of Cii Associates Inc., a LobbyGuard distributor, has worked with school officials to establish the pilot program.

LobbyGuard was installed in April 2008, and so far the reception has been very positive.

Sex offender told to stay away from Ken-Ton schools

2008-12-20T22:50:00.002-05:00

A high-risk sex offender has been told to stay away from schools in the Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda School District, where he has been spotted at boys’ athletic events.

School Superintendent Mark P. Mondanaro sent a letter this week to Dennis Woodard of Kenmore, barring him from school property. It’s the only legal option available.

“He doesn’t even have probation anymore,” said Kenmore Police Chief Carl J. LaCorte. “He served his time.”

But as a Level 3, or high-risk, offender, Woodard will remain on the state’s sex offender registry for the rest of his life. Every year, he’s required to register in person at the local police department and have a photograph taken.

A former elementary school science teacher and coach in Central New York, Woodard, 65, was arrested in 1993 on federal charges that he sold pornographic videos and photos of young boys. He subsequently pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and sexually exploiting a youth, and spent more than a decade in prison on that conviction and a parole violation.

Woodard moved to Kenmore, where his parents lived, several years ago.

“It’s sacred ground, to the point where simple trespass on the outside . . . is a misdemeanor because it’s a school,” the police chief said. Conviction on a misdemeanor count of trespass carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail.

Parents had notified police and district officials about Woodard’s presence at swimming meets and wrestling matches.

“I [saw] him at the last swim meet,” said Pam Coniglio, referring to an event Tuesday at Kenmore West High School. Her son, Tyler, is on Kenmore East’s swimming team.

“The idea of this guy looking at my son in a swimming suit . . .,” she said Friday. “He has no kids on the swim team. He has no reason to be there.”

She said she called the superintendent Wednesday and he took immediate action.

“We heard it from a parent. The superintendent got right on it,” Michael B. Haggerty, a district spokesman, said Friday.

“I would like to prevent something before it happens to any kid,” she said.

Man arrested for allegedly photographing girls at Mid-Valley Academy restroom

2008-12-11T19:09:00.002-05:00

Yet another reason why sex offenders should NEVER be allowed on school grounds.

A registered sex offender was arrested Wednesday after he confessed to using a digital camera to photograph young girls inside a Mid-Valley Academy restroom, police said.

Two teenage girls, students at the charter school, told police they saw a camera lens in the ceiling above a toilet on Dec. 5, according to a police report.

Police arrested San Benito resident Jose Trinidad Sauceda, 46, police Lt. Martin Morales said. Sauceda, an employee of Lopez Air Conditioning in Harlingen, is charged with two counts of improper photographing/visual recording.

Morales said Sauceda became a registered sex offender in March 2005.

Morales said Sauceda fabricated a reason to visit the school last week.

Mid-Valley Academy Principal Daniel Garcia reported to police that a worker from Lopez Air Conditioning had come to the school on Dec. 4 to install insulation around pipes in the attic.

According to a police report, Lopez Air Conditioning did not know Sauceda had visited the school that week and a work order was not issued.

"The suspect did not have any business at the school," Morales said. "He basically made up a reason to be there."

"He did admit to everything," Morales said. "He did not deny allegations."

Um, lock up this perv!

School Intruder Was Convicted Sex Offender

2008-12-06T16:14:00.004-05:00

The man police say barricaded himself in a High Point Elementary School closet Tuesday is a convicted sex offender with a history of violent behavior and mental illness documented in police and court records

William Gerald Skaggs, 35, of Bristol, Tenn., was convicted of statutory rape in 1995, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s statewide sex offender registry. He also has been convicted of disorderly conduct after knocking over a hospital bed and twice for assault following fights with his girlfriends.

On Tuesday, police charged Skaggs with trespassing, disorderly conduct and other crimes after arresting him at High Point. His presence at High Point along with two other men sparked a tense two-hour lockdown that has school officials wondering how much security is enough.

“What I saw [Tuesday] was something I hadn’t really thought about,” said Alan Lee, Washington County’s superintendent of public schools.

The schools already keep all but the front doors locked during classes, but Lee said Wednesday that more security might be needed.

“For the peace of mind it would give the people in our buildings, it would be worth it,” he said.

Sex offender arrested in playground

2008-12-06T16:11:00.001-05:00

A homeless sex offender found urinating and drinking in a playground adjacent to Collins Middle School as students were being dismissed Wednesday morning is being held on $1,000 cash bail.

William Rivera, 50, was arrested shortly after 11 a.m. the day before Thanksgiving on charges that include open and gross lewdness and public drinking.

Police got a call from someone who said they saw the man in the playground on Broad Street, Salem police Lt. Conrad Prosniewski said.

The caller was not aware that Rivera has a 1997 conviction on his record for lewd and lascivious conduct with a child under 16, according to the Florida sex offender registry. Rivera has also lived in Chicago.

But the caller did know that students were outside in groups and that Rivera was in plain view, Prosniewski said.

Sex Offenders Banned From Children's Gathering Spots

2008-12-06T16:09:00.000-05:00

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The law as it relates to sex offenders is long and complicated, and in Mecklenburg County it zeroes in on where over 700 local registered sex offenders can legally go.

They're already restricted from parks, and as of Monday, they can't come within 300 feet of any places where minors normally gather, such as the play areas at some local restaurants.

“(If) they're sitting near the door of that play area or really anywhere in that facility, they're violating the law,” said Mecklenburg County Sheriff Chipp Bailey.

New Laws Address How, When Sex Offenders Can Go To Schools

2008-11-21T22:57:00.002-05:00

Most of us feel safer knowing registered sex offenders cannot work or live near schools or day care facilities. But what if that registered sex offender is also a parent?

On Jan. 29, 2007, a ten-year-old girl was walking to East Side Elementary in Rogers when she noticed a man getting out of a grey minivan.

"The suspect grabbed her took her behind a shed. That's when he groped her," said Steve Helms of the Rogers Police Department.

That man was 30-year-old George Perez, a registered sex offender. He was also a parent of an East Side student.

"George Perez actually had been kind of lingering in the school," said Beverly Engle of the Children's Advocacy Center. Engle said Perez had been in the halls, observing children and driving around the school prior to the attack.

"I think there were some concerns that him victimizing that child may have been due to the fact that he had accessibility to that school at different times," Engle said.

But at the time, there were no laws on the books keeping Perez -- or other sex offenders -- from being on school grounds.

But in the wake of the Perez attack, teachers, child advocates and lawmakers in Northwest Arkansas created House Bill 2336, which limits when a level 3 or 4 registered sex offender is allowed at school.

No details about sex offenders enrolled in schools

2008-11-21T22:06:00.002-05:00

Des Moines school officials say that although they are required to educate convicted sex offenders who live in the district, they will not identify them publicly or notify parents which schools they attend.

School board members this fall approved education plans for two students - one whose crime was of a "heinous nature," according to board member Jonathan Narcisse - but declined to talk about the cases outside the closed-door meetings where the decisions were made.

The issue pits the confidentiality and safety of young offenders against parents' concerns that their children will be put in danger without their knowledge.

"The school or the police cannot at all times protect the public from becoming a victim if this person is a real predator. If this person isn't locked up, the best chance they have is for the public to know who he or she is," said state Rep. Clel Baudler, the ranking Republican member of the Legislature's public safety committee.

Baudler, of Greenfield, said school officials should make public not only the names and where offenders are enrolled, but details of the crimes they committed.

"Schools have a responsibility of confidentiality, but they also have a responsibility of safety," he said. "And they can't have that happen until there's information out there that's public."

Districts that refuse enrollment to an offender must provide and pay for alternatives, such as off-campus classes, home tutors or after-hours courses.

Election Day Poses School Safety Concerns

2008-10-31T10:36:00.002-04:00

www.schoolsecurity.org

ELECTION DAY POSES SCHOOL SAFETY CONCERNS
Expert says massive voter turnout and high emotions add to safety concerns.

The November 4th General Election, with massive voter turnout and high emotions, adds to already existing potential school security threats including non-custodial parents, sexual predators and others with ill intentions who might want to get access to schools, according to Kenneth Trump, a national school safety expert.

"It makes no sense that schools spends millions and millions of dollars on controlling school access throughout the school year only to open their doors a couple times a year to anyone and everyone without really knowing who is in their buildings," says Kenneth Trump, President of the Cleveland (Ohio)-based National School Safety and Security Services.

Trump, who has advocated for years to move polling places out of schools to other places in the community, notes that a small, but growing, number of communities have done so. Many schools instead designate Election Day as a professional development day for teachers while students stay home.

But many schools remain open for both education and polling, Trump says. Voters add to traffic congestion at student drop-off and pick-up, overloaded school parking lots, and strangers wandering around schools.

The expected large turnout for the 2008 Presidential Election, and the heightened emotions and polarization associated with this year's election, only heightens existing school safety concerns, according to Trump.

"Permanently moving polling places out of schools to other locations in the community is very prudent considering best practices taken to improve school access control in the past decade. Unfortunately, many elected officials and school districts fear political resistance by some voters in their communities, and have dodged the issue. Sadly, it will probably take a high-profile national tragedy to bring about this needed change on a large scale nationally," Trump said.

Sex offender charged with loitering near school

2008-10-31T10:33:00.002-04:00

A 38-year-old registered sex offender is facing charges of loitering near a school and resisting police.

Norton Shores police arrested Jeffrey Thomas Partlow, of 68 E. Lincoln, Muskegon Heights, at his parents' home on Wednesday.

Norton Shores Detective Tony Nanna said a school bus stop also is three houses down from the parents' home.

Partlow previously had been warned about being in the area of the middle school and Campbell Elementary School, 1355 Greenwich, in Roosevelt Park, police said.

Norton Shores police contacts with Partlow, who has a 2000 conviction in West Virginia for indecent acts with a child, began last December. Nanna said Partlow was told he could visit his parents, but couldn't walk around the neighborhood.

"Multiple kids in the neighborhood would see him watching in the window as they got off and on the bus." -- Norton Shores Detective Tony Nanna.

Hazelwood district system helps flag sex offenders

2008-10-31T10:29:00.001-04:00

If you visit any school in the Hazelwood School District, a secretary or security officer likely will greet you with a smile. But they'll also ask for your drivers license.

They need to check it against a national database to see if you're a sex offender.

Smart Check 3 is the name of the new security system, set up this year in all 32 Hazelwood school sites. Secretaries and security officers scan visitor's drivers licenses in a card reader that is connected to a computer, which then runs the name through the U.S. Department of Justice's national clearinghouse of state sex offender registries.

"That's very cool. I think it's a great idea," said Sharman Mitchell, a book company representative, as she waited for the computer to scan her name one recent morning at Armstrong Elementary. "I think it's good to protect kids."

TEN THINGS PARENTS CAN DO TO MAKE HALLOWEEN SAFER

2008-10-18T20:33:00.002-04:00

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Tells Parents How They Can Build Safety into Halloween this Year

CHOOSE bright, flame-retardant costumes or add reflective tape to costumes and candy bags so children are easily seen in the dark. In addition, carry a glow stick or flashlight.
PLAN a trick-or-treating route in familiar neighborhoods with well-lit streets. Avoid unfamiliar neighborhoods, streets that are isolated, or homes that are poorly lit inside or outside.
NEVER send young children out alone. They should always be accompanied by a parent or another trusted adult. Older children should always travel in groups.
ALWAYS walk younger children to the door to receive treats and don’t let children enter a home unless you are with them.
BE SURE children do not approach any vehicle, occupied or not, unless you are with them.
DISCUSS basic pedestrian safety rules that children should use when walking to and from houses.
CONSIDER organizing a home or community party as an alternative to “trick-or-treating.”
MAKE sure children know their home phone number and address in case you get separated. Teach children how to call 911 in an emergency.
TEACH children to say “NO!” or “this is not my mother/father” in a loud voice if someone tries to get them to go somewhere, accept anything other than a treat, or leave with them. And teach them that they should make every effort to get away by kicking, screaming and resisting.
REMIND children to remain alert and report suspicious incidents to parents and/or law enforcement.

“Child safety is important year round, but Halloween is an especially important time for parents and children to pay extra attention to their surroundings and not let their guard down,” said Nancy McBride, National Safety Director of NCMEC. “It is important that parents exercise a few basic safety precautions to help ensure that Halloween is both fun and safe.”

State schools chief pushes for sex offender law

2008-10-18T20:30:00.000-04:00

State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex renewed his call for a law that would stiffen the penalty for school employees who have sex with students, according to a statement his office released Monday.
Rex also is urging the Legislature to raise the age of consent from 16 to 18 years old for students who have sex with a school employee or volunteer.

"Though there are just a few of these incidents, it's always an outrage when one of our children is put in harm's way," Rex said.

Schools to run sex offender checks on volunteers

2008-10-18T20:24:00.002-04:00

The Greenville County school district plans to start running the names of parents through the state sex offender registry to weed out potential predators who might volunteer in schools, district officials said Tuesday.

Parents who don't want their name checked can opt out by telling their child's principal they don't want to be considered for any volunteer work, said Burke Royster, deputy superintendent for operations.

The State Law Enforcement Division keeps records of people convicted of all types of crimes in South Carolina and charges $8 per check, Royster said. The district already runs SLED checks on volunteer coaches and is talking to legislators about gaining free access to SLED's database for use on all school volunteers, he said.

The district will use information already in its database about parents and guardians to check their names against the sex offender database, which is available free to the public online.

Man assaulted girl on visit to middle school

2008-10-11T14:38:00.002-04:00

A 34-year-old man is accused of grabbing a 13-year-old girl from a Coble Middle School hallway two weeks ago and sexually assaulting her in a women’s locker room, Arlington police reported on Friday.

Wright was a visitor at the school, he is the father of a student there. School officials said.

"I didn’t want to believe it at first," said Sheryl Levels, who was picking up her child. "You feel sad for the [girl]. It just tells you that you can’t protect them. You want to feel like they are safe at school, but they are not."

Police Watch Out For Sexual Predator Around Schools

2008-10-11T00:17:00.003-04:00

Pocatello Police issued a warning Wednesday about a possible danger wandering School District 25 school grounds. Parents and teachers received notice of a pedophile that is possibly posing a threat.

Officers are very concerned by 53-year-old Scott Cutler Carlson. In fact sources with District 25 say D.A.R.E officers told them it's not a matter of if Carlson will offend again but when.

Carlson is classified as a violent sexual predator after being convicted of two counts of lewd conduct with a child under 16 back in 1993.

Girl Sexually Assaulted at School Bus Stop

2008-10-11T00:14:00.001-04:00

A 28-year-old sex offender assaulted a 12-year-old girl as she walked to her school bus Wednesday morning, police said.

Officers said the incident happened on Dalecrest Drive in north Charlotte around 8:16 a.m. after the girl got off a city bus. They said the child, a sixth-grader at James Martin Middle School, had recently moved and had to take the city bus to get to her old Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools bus stop. Police said they believe the suspect, Marcus Kennedy, followed her off the city bus.

Aurora districts on alert for man canvassing schools

2008-10-11T00:12:00.001-04:00

Staffers at two southwest Missouri school districts have been alerted to watch for a man who told Mount Vernon police last week he wanted to lure a child to his truck, but the school superintendents said publicity about the man likely has scared him away from the area.

The man went to three Mount Vernon schools last Tuesday and to one school Wednesday, Mount Vernon Superintendent Russ Cruzan said.

The man used the same story about wanting to enroll several children from Germany when he went to two Aurora schools on Thursday, Superintendent Dale Slagle said.

CHILD SAFETY HANDBOOK

2008-10-01T22:04:00.001-04:00

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and Duracell are partnering for the third consecutive year through the Power of Parents child safety program to arm families with important new information about school year safety. According to new data released today from NCMEC, most abduction attempts occur after-school, between the hours of 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.1 Almost half of non-family abduction attempts happen when a child is walking to or from school or a related school activity.2 NCMEC also found that the overwhelming majority of children affected by abduction attempts are young girls (74 percent) between the ages of 10 and 14 years old. As 56 million students grades K through 12 are beginning their school year, it is more important than ever for families to take the time to have important safety discussions.

To help parents guide the conversation with their children, NCMEC and Duracell have expanded their child safety resource portfolio with the addition of a new, free Child Safety Handbook. The handbookhas been developed for parents of children who are infant through high school ages. It is available on www.powerofparentsonline.com.

School Volunteers To Be Checked Against Sex Offender List

2008-09-27T10:57:00.002-04:00

Wait! Isn't EVERY school doing this??......Surprise! The answer is NO!!

Cross-Checking Names With Registries Shouldn't Cost Schools Money, Boulder Says

Volunteers at Boulder Valley's schools will soon have to go through a different kind of background check.

Their names will be cross checked with a sex-offender registry.

The newspaper reported parent Eric Maxfield started the discussion about stricter background checks this school year after his son returned from his first day of kindergarten at Louisville Elementary School and mentioned volunteers in his classroom. Maxfield said he wanted to know more about the adults working with his son and learned the district doesn't have a blanket background-check policy for its volunteers.

Sex offender nabbed at city library

2008-09-27T10:55:00.001-04:00

A registered, Level 2 sex offender who walked into a children's room at the downtown public library Thursday was fined $150 for violating the city's "child safety zone" ordinance.

Police said Karlheinz Harding, 47, of 241 Ashley Blvd. is the first sex offender to violate a city ordinance banning individuals convicted of juvenile sex crimes from being in public places where children are present.

Mr. Harding was convicted in 1987 of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, police said.

He also has two prior arrests for failing to register as a sex offender.

Sex Offender Arrested Outside School

2008-09-27T10:51:00.001-04:00

A registered sex offender was arrested today outside an elementary school in Williamson County.

Police got a call about a man lying in the grass behind Franklin Elementary School. They found Terry Baker in the area with grass stains on his shirt.

Police said Baker was in violation of the sex offender registry.

Children Escape Chasing Sex Offender

2008-09-26T20:24:00.002-04:00

A group of Central Florida children said they were forced to barricade themselves in a house to escape a convicted sex offender chasing them from a school bus stop.

Four different children said they were chased from a school bus stop by the same man.

Tim Dodson's children used a birdcage and shelves to block the door of their home after they spotted the man looking in the home's windows.

Dodson said he found his children crying and shaken.

During a check of neighbors, Dodson discovered neighbor Fernando Soto is on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's sex offender database. Soto was convicted of child abuse in Maryland in 1996.

Soto lives with his parents at a nearby home located on Walnut Crest Run in the Preserve at Lake Monroe, near the Dodson family's school bus stop.

Soto was taken into custody by police after being questioned.

BCSC board adopts two policies

2008-09-26T20:20:00.001-04:00

In an effort to keep students safe, Batesville Community School Corp. trustees enacted two policies Sept. 15 that deal with sex offenders.

The policy on offenders states, “individuals listed by the State of Indiana as registered sex offenders are ineligible for employment in any position with the Batesville Community School Corp.”

It continues, “No registered sex offender whose victim was a minor may come on the campus of any ... school except as otherwise provided in this policy.” If a principal or other administrator sees an offender on school property, the official will order the person to leave immediately. If the offender disregards the order, police will be called and later criminal or civil action may occur.

The policy states, “In the event that a registered sex offender whose victim was a minor has a child” attending school, the principal may modify the restrictions to allow the parent to drop off and pick up the child and attend parent-teacher conferences, but the parent may not linger on school property. “The parent is prohibited from being in any part of the school building except the front office. Volunteering at the school or participating on school trips or at school events is prohibited.”

The document notes, “At all times, school officials shall endeavor to protect the privacy of the offender’s child.”

A parent on the registry may ask for a waiver of the policy to attend graduation or another “truly exceptional situation.”

Court upholds 2,000-foot rule against sex offender

2008-09-20T11:25:00.002-04:00

The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday ruled that a sex offender was not discriminated against when he was charged with violating a residency rule that he claimed was not in effect when he bought his house.

So you decide it's okay to molest a child in 1997. You are released from jail and decided to buy a house in 2005, next to a school, you already know you are not allowed to buy a house within so many feet of a school, but do it anyway. Then cry when you are charged with living too close to a school? When will sex offenders learn, we don't want you around our children!

Read more about this story here:

http://www.gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080920/NEWS/709209944/1006/news

Man Caught In Sex Act In Front Of Elementary School

2008-09-20T11:19:00.002-04:00

A man who had been the subject of five citywide crime alerts and was arrested in July at a Sun Valley school was sentenced to four years in county jail after pleading no contest to misdemeanor child annoying charges.
Concepcion was sentenced Thursday in connection with his plea involving eight separate incidents of child annoying in a case that was filed after school police caught Concepcion masturbating at an elementary school in Sun Valley in July.

Concepcion was also ordered to stay away from schools, playgrounds, toy stores and other locations where minors congregate during his six years on probation, according to Frank Mateljan, a communications deputy with the City Attorney's Office

Police Chase Sex Offender; Schools Put On Lockdown

2008-09-15T19:32:00.003-04:00

Several Rockwood school were on lockdown Friday after a sex offender went missing. This all started when O’Fallon, Missouri police went to arrest two people wanted by Pennsylvania State Police.

But when cops came to Ballwin to get the man wanted for violating sex offender registry laws, he bolted. Police chased him on foot then called in a canine. A short time later, he was caught.

Rockwood officials say they enforced a partial lockdown because the wanted man's sex offender status. Four schools were put on a partial lockdown including Marquette High School on Clarkson Road.

Parents were able to pick up their kids, but kids were not allowed to walk off campus for a time. No students were hurt.

Bozeman sets new sex offender policy

2008-09-15T19:29:00.001-04:00

The Bozeman School Board has approved new policies in case someone listed on Montana's sexual or violent offender registry tries to enroll.

The board voted 7-0 last week to allow the district superintendent to decide if a Bozeman student would be educated at school or in some alternative way outside of school, if they were on the registry list or had been listed in the past.

The board also approved a policy that would allow the superintendent to refuse to enroll a student listed on the registry if they live outside the Bozeman School District.

sex offender offered free haircuts

2008-09-15T19:22:00.000-04:00

Parents in Holmesburg are shocked at claims that an alleged sex offender passed out leaflets offering free haircuts to girls at Forrest Elementary School on Wednesday.

The fliers that the alleged sex offender handed out are believed to have offered free haircuts at Frankford Avenue and Welsh Road.

Police were unavailable to comment on the case last night.

KYW reported yesterday that the man in question is a registered sex offender but that he is compliant with Megan's Law and not necessarily prohibited from distributing the literature, according to a police Special Victims Unit spokesperson.

School volunteers could undergo sex-offender checks

2008-09-11T10:20:00.004-04:00

One parent’s demand to know more about the people who interact with his kindergartner has prompted the Boulder Valley School District to consider requiring schools to cross-check names of volunteers with public sex-offender registries.

The district now doesn’t require full background checks of all its volunteers because the checks — which are done through the Colorado Bureau of Investigation — are expensive and time-consuming, said Superintendent Chris King.

Eric Maxfield, who has a child attending Louisville Elementary School, has asked the school board to change that. This week, Maxfield requested that district officials tighten their background-check policy because, he said, it’s their responsibility to keep students safe.

“I don’t want a volunteer that hasn’t had a background check and is a registered sex offender to be in a classroom with my students,” Maxfield told the school board.

As more criminal-history information becomes accessible to the public, Maxfield said, it makes sense for the district to take advantage of the improving technology. A tighter policy, he said, not only would enhance student safety but minimize the district’s liability.

School board member Patti Smith said Maxfield is not alone in his concerns. Smith said she receives e-mails from other parents who have the same queries about the criminal backgrounds of volunteers, and she suggested the district investigate the possibility of altering its volunteer policy to at least check names with sex-offender registries.

What To Ask Your School Bus Driver

2008-09-06T12:17:00.004-04:00

Who is driving your kids to school? As a parent, you have the right to know. However, it turns out - most of you are not asking.

Durham School Services says it does a full background check on everyone it hires. Without that information being public, parents may want to check it out for themselves. With a bus driver's name you can check the Kansas Sex Offender Registry and/or look at whether the person has a criminal history.

NETSMARTZ® WORKSHOP LAUNCHES

2008-09-03T21:04:00.001-04:00

Award-winning Online Resources Help Reinforce Internet and Real-World Safety

The new campaign will direct families and educators to the NetSmartz Back-2-School Kit, a free resource designed to help instill every day safety values in children between the ages 5-12 that can be downloaded at www.netsmartz.org. The content includes the high-definition animated videos Way 2 Go!, Beat the Tricks!, and The Boy Who Loved IM, which are each accompanied by resources for educators, parents and guardians including supplemental lesson plans, the new NetSmartz Activity Book and Teachable Recipes.

Schools take steps to tighten security

2008-09-01T22:45:00.001-04:00

Sitting atop the main office counter inside Paragon Charter Academy is a virtual security guard that grants or denies people access to the building based on whether they are registered sex offenders.

Visitors, volunteers and maintenance workers stand in front of the machine, called LobbyGuard. An embedded camera snaps their photo and a computer scans their driver's license, checking names and birthdays against a national sex offender database.

With many districts struggling to maintain operations with limited state funding, school leaders say it is getting more difficult to install all safety measures they would like to have.

Many agree that school-safety measures should be one of the last things to go.

School Safety: Scanning for Sex Offenders

2008-08-28T22:54:00.001-04:00

“Safety is critical we take that as one of our primary charges from our parents to keep our staff and students as safe as possible in our schools,” Steele Howen said.

Beginning last January, a new policy went into effect which requires all visitors and volunteers entering Albemarle County schools to be checked against the sex offender registry.

“We want to know who is in our school and so we’ve been more careful about people signing into our schools for visitors as well as our volunteers,” Howen said.

If a registered sex offender is sighted, the superintendent would be immediately notified, and local law-enforcement contacted.

Parents' Fear of Sexual Predators and Abductors on School Campuses

2008-08-20T22:52:00.005-04:00

School Security is a Major Concern Among Parents of Children in Grades K-8

As millions of students start a new school year, results of a new survey indicate that nearly half of the parents of kindergartners to eighth graders are concerned about school security.

Details of the "ADT National Back-to-School Security Survey" were announced today during a news conference at an elementary school in the nation's capital.

Among the findings, nearly half of the respondents expressed concerns that a sexual predator could target their child while at school and more than a third have concerns that their child could be abducted by a stranger. A majority said they'd be willing to pay for additional security systems to help schools keep unwanted visitors off campuses.

"Through this survey, parents are making it clear they want local school boards to do more to protect children," said Patrick Fiel, ADT's public security advisor and a former head of security for Washington, D.C. Public Schools. "We need cooperation among adults and children, proper planning and more innovation to ensure that young students are as safe as possible."

Fiel offers the following six steps parents can take to help create safer schools:

-- Talk to your children about school security
-- Visit your child's campus and talk with an administrator about the school's security plan
-- Educate yourself on the plans, procedures and technologies working well at other schools
-- Get to know the law enforcement officials assigned to your child's school
-- Join other parents who may also be concerned about the security of their children

There are currently more than 500,000 registered sex offenders in the U.S., according to the National Alert Registry. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports more than 700 children are abducted each day.

"These numbers underscore the need for all stakeholders in education to help improve school safety," said Brad Dennis, director of search operations for the KlaasKids Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps stop crimes against children. "By forming and promoting partnerships with concerned parents and other citizens, we can become part of the solution to keep our kids safe."

SOURCE: ADT Security Services

Back-to-School safety tips

2008-08-06T16:14:00.004-04:00

SafeAssured ID and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® remind Families to Discuss Safety as Kids Head Back to School

As millions of children take to the streets and roadways to head back to school this fall, SafeAssured ID and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) urge parents and guardians to make child safety a priority. In addition to reminding families of the importance of keeping an up-to-date digital photo of their children, SafeAssured ID will be featuring “Back to School” safety tips from NCMEC child safety experts on their website at www.safeassured-id.com.

The tips recognize that parents and guardians may need some help discussing child safety and are meant to empower them to start this conversation with their children to prepare for a safer school year. Tips include:

Instruct your child to always take a friend when walking or riding his or her bike to and from school.
If anyone bothers your child while going to or from school, you should teach him or her to get away from that person, and tell you or another trusted adult.
Teach your children to never leave school with anyone they don’t know.

“Children do not have the same frame of reference for safety as adults and that’s why it’s important to work on helping them develop strong safety skills,” said Nancy A. McBride, NCMEC’s National Safety Director. “We would like to see families make talking about child safety part of their regular back-to-school routine like shopping for school supplies, and we are grateful to SafeAssured ID for helping us put this information in the hands of parents, guardians and children all across the country.”

“NCMEC plays an extremely valuable role in keeping our children safer,” said Ken Hofmaster, President of SafeAssured ID. “We are proud to share their commitment to that mission and hope that every family will take the time to review these tips before sending their children off to school. It has always been our hope that every child would have access to SafeAssured ID technology, but never need to use it.”

www.missingkids.com

Sex Offender Arrested For Day Care Visit

2008-07-31T22:46:00.001-04:00

A registered sex offender is arrested after spending time at a preschool where there were young children.

41-year-old Joe Panaia is charged with loitering in a community safety zone. He was arrested at his home last night after stopping at the MyTea Tykes day care Thursday.

Panaia is on the sex offender registry for exposing himself to a woman five years ago. He's been charged with two other sex crimes, which were dismissed before going to trial.

Sex Offender arrested at Elementary School

2008-07-30T21:32:00.001-04:00

A 21-year-old Sugar Grove man was arrested Wednesday after police spotted the sex offender at this weekend's annual corn boil festival held at an elementary school.

Joshua Beman, of the 6N 200 block of Hankes Road, was arrested by police on a warrant for being on school property while children under the age of 18 were present, according to a release from Sugar Grove police.

In Illinois, sex offenders are not allowed on school property. In Ohio they are. Why hasn't Ohio passed this law yet?

New technology helps protect school children from sex offenders

2008-07-23T19:41:00.000-04:00

In January of 2006, Michigan legislators created the "1,000 Foot School Safety Zone" to protect children and schools from convicted sex offenders.

At one local school, it's not a police officer stopping the bad guys from coming in, it's a computer.

When visitors walk through the doors at Cross Creek Academy, it's not a secretary checking people in, it's what they call a LobbyGuard. This is a machine designed to screen out the worst in our society from getting close to children. Anyone who walks into the school building must put their driver's license in just to be able to get a pass.

"We do a background check on every adult coming into the building" said Joe Niewkoop, the Principal of Cross Creek.

The machine recognizes sex offenders on the national registry.

When a sex offender tries to come in, the computer immediately alerts the principal that a problem might be happening.

Parents like Jan Baumann are thrilled by it, her second grader attends Cross Creek. She says it gives her a sense of security and she believes that all schools should make the investment.

All National Heritage Academies across the country have installed the systems to screen individuals coming into the school.

Loitering Ban Considered For Sex Offenders

2008-07-23T19:34:00.000-04:00

The anti-loitering idea is the brainchild of Stephanie Malas, who spotted a sex offender at Northwest park, located near her home, 10TV's Kevin Landers reported.

"Most everybody in the neighborhood has seen him," Malas said.
Malas said he brings comic books with him to the park.

"It does seem like a book that mostly children read and children are attracted to," Malas said. "I'm not confident that he's not out looking for the opportunity to attract a child."

Idaho, South Dakota, Virginia and Georgia have passed anti-loitering laws against sex offenders.

Sallie Miller, the mother of a young child, said she thinks banning sex offenders from loitering at parks, pools or libraries is worth considering.

Registered Sex Offender hanging around city parks

2008-07-23T19:31:00.000-04:00

UA police officers have been watching a registered sex offender that has taken to hanging around Upper Arlington parks during the past few weeks.

Upper Arlington Police Chief Brian Quinn updated City Council at its meeting Monday night, July 14.

The man, a Columbus resident who lives just north of the city, has been seen at both Northwest and Thompson parks, Quinn said.

Quinn said officers have followed him and made contact with him, after at least one resident called police to express concerns.

St. Mary's Implements New Screening Process for School Volunteers

2008-07-23T19:27:00.000-04:00

Those wishing to volunteer for St. Mary’s County Public Schools will now have to go through a more extensive screening process to be approved. Beginning with the 2008-2009 school year, SMCPS will implement new procedures for screening volunteers to ensure an appropriate level of background checks for all community members who provide volunteer hours to its schools. All of this comes in the wake of a rash of arrests that happened in April involving suspected sexual offenses within the school system.

One involved 24 year-old Scott Strandberg of Lexington Park, a former drum line coach for Leonardtown High School who was arrested for allegedly having sexual contact with a 16 year-old female student both at his home and on a school bus between September and November of last year. Under the old system, as a paid volunteer, he had not been subjected to the same type of background check as other school system employees or substitute teachers.

Also in April, 54 year-old David Emile Guillemette was arrested and charged with committing sexual abuse toward a 15 year-old female who had visited his home, as well as third-degree sex offense and second-degree assault. Guillemette had worked as a substitute teacher at various St. Mary’s County elementary schools, and had been subjected to a background check, which showed no prior criminal record save for charges related to traffic citations and a peace order that had been filed against him by complainants who failed to appear in court.

School Superintendent Michael Martirano announced his intentions to initiate a tougher screening process for volunteers after these arrests were made, explaining that volunteers would be screened against the National Sex Offender Registry to start with.

‘Child safety zone’ ordinance advances

2008-07-02T19:51:00.000-04:00

High-risk sex offenders will be banned from city-owned schools, parks and libraries — places were children are apt to play and study — under an ordinance unanimously endorsed by a City Council subcommittee Monday night.

The full council could ratify the measure as soon as July 15.

Following the alleged rape of 6-year-old boy at a public library in New Bedford last winter, city councilors have worked the past several months on a “child safety zone” ordinance they believe will pass constitutional muster.

The stated premise is the city “finds and declares that sex offenders are a serious threat to public safety” and that there “is a need to protect children where they congregate, learn or play in public places.”

Keep sex offenders out of homes with children!

2008-06-26T20:11:00.002-04:00

Cross posted from WASP

The Ohio House has passed a bill aimed to keep people convicted of sexual crimes out of the homes of children. It would be a case of child neglect if a child victim offender was living with children.

The Ohio Senate needs to pass this bill in order for this law to proceed and become law.

SOSEN ~ a group of sex offenders and thier advocates who work to get laws for sex offenders LOOSENED has decided to fight this legislation, and has started an email campaign to the senate to make it seem that nobody wants this legislation.I am in need of your help! I need you to write or call the Ohio Senate members and tell them you are in support of HB111.

Children should not be led to the slaughter by careless parents.

http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID=127_HB_111

Here is a form letter that you could copy and paste to your email:

Dear Senator,
I am writing to show my support for HB111. I want Ohio children to be protected from sexual offenders. Children should not be endangered from neglectful and careless parents by being forced to live with sexual offenders.This bill is common sense, and Ohio needs to stop protecting the needs of sex offenders, and work on protecting our children. If this bill is passed it will actually prevent sexual abuse of children.

According to the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network
15% of sexual assault and rape victims are under age 12.
29% are age 12-17.
44% are under age 18.
80% are under age 30.
12-34 are the highest risk years.

Girls ages 16-19 are 4 times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault.
7% of girls in grades 5-8 and 12% of girls in grades 9-12 said they had been sexually abused.
3% of boys grades 5-8 and 5% of boys in grades 9-12 said they had been sexually abused.

In 1995, local child protection service agencies identified 126,000 children who were victims of either substantiated or indicated sexual abuse.
Of these, 75% were girls.Nearly 30% of child victims were between the age of 4 and 7.93% of juvenile sexual assault victims know their attacker.34.2% of attackers were family members.58.7% were acquaintances.Only 7% of the perpetrators were strangers to the victim.

Please pass HB111 and protect these innocent children who cannot protect themselves.

Sincerly,

Copy and paste this into your TO box in your email:

SD22@mailr.sen.state.oh.us, sd10@mailr.sen.state.oh.us, senatorboccieri@maild.sen.state.oh.us, SD01@mailr.sen.state.oh.us, senatorcafaro@maild.sen.state.oh.us, sd17@mailr.sen.state.oh.us, SD04@mailr.sen.state.oh.us, kcoughli@mailr.sen.state.oh.us, SD12@mailr.sen.state.oh.us, fedoroffice@maild.sen.state.oh.us, dgoodman@mailr.sen.state.oh.us, SD18@mailr.sen.state.oh.us, SD19@mailr.sen.state.oh.us, jjacobso@mailr.sen.state.oh.us, Senatorkearney@maild.sen.state.oh.us, senatormason@maild.sen.state.oh.us, SD23@maild.sen.state.oh.us, rmiller@maild.sen.state.oh.us, senatormorano@maild.sen.state.oh.us, mailto:SD26@mailr.sen.state.oh.us, sd14@mailr.sen.state.oh.us, sd20@mailr.sen.state.oh.us, troberts@maild.sen.state.oh.us, senatorsawyer@maild.sen.state.oh.us, SD31@mailr.sen.state.oh.us, SD07@mailr.sen.state.oh.us, SD29@mailr.sen.state.oh.us, sd08@mailr.sen.state.oh.us, senatorsmith@maild.sen.state.oh.us, rspada@mailr.sen.state.oh.us, sd16@mailr.sen.state.oh.us, sd02@mailr.sen.state.oh.us, senatorwilson@maild.sen.state.oh.us

please forward this to all groups that have an interest in protecting children!Thanks! Tracy
posted by WASP Ohio at 10:19 AM on Jun 26, 2008

Picnic table sex offender sentenced

2008-06-22T12:47:00.000-04:00

A Bellevue man will spend six months behind bars after police say he was caught on tape having sex with a picnic table. 40-year-old Art Price, Junior has now pleaded no contest to several misdemeanor charges.

Police say it was all out in the open and within eyesight of Ridge Elementary School and its playground.

West Covina takes steps to track sex offenders

2008-06-20T19:31:00.002-04:00

The City Council on Tuesday approved an ordinance urged by Councilman Mike Touhey that calls for the electronic tracking of registered sex offenders.

"We want to make sure that they are not loitering in places like playgrounds," Touhey said. "We are trying to strengthen our laws to protect our residents."

Among the council- approved code amendments that creates more restrictions on where sex offenders can live and loiter are:
Cannot live within 2,000 feet of child care centers.

Cannot have multiple sex offenders living together in multi-family
dwellings, hotels, motels and inns, and extends the prohibition beyond a sex offender's parole.

Declares it a public nuisance for owners and their authorized agents to knowingly rent to more than one registered sex offender.

Makes it a misdemeanor for a registered sex offender to loiter within a 300-foot radius of child care centers, public and private schools, school bus stops, parks, public libraries, swimming pools and children's playgrounds.

Currently, neither state nor local law prohibits loitering near places where children congregate, according to the staff report.

Sex offender cited for being near school

2008-06-11T21:52:00.001-04:00

A 25-year-old convicted sex offender was cited on June 8 for being at Gavilan Hills Elementary School without permission. Police said the man was on the school's soccer field while two groups of people were having a picnic. School was not in session at the time, but the man's sex offender status prohibits him from being at the school at any time. A police officer in the area recognized the man then cited and released him.

Sex offfender found in a local school

2008-06-11T21:48:00.000-04:00

He's a convicted sex offender from California who was working at a Toledo Catholic Parrish; a Parrish which includes a grade school.

The diocese says they did not require a full background check because he worked primarily at the St. Joan of Arc Church, not the school.

William Werner, 65, is a sex offender. He had been convicted of lewd and lascivious behavior with a girl under 14-years-old. After he reportedly did time, he moved to the Toledo-area and, we're told, did not register as a sex offender.

Prom limo driver had suspended license, is sex offender

2008-06-04T12:16:00.001-04:00

Parents of some Haverhill High School seniors were angry that a limousine driver who had a suspended license and is a convicted sex offender drove their children to the prom.

Troy Barrett, 29, transported the students to their prom, but when he returned to pick them up, something was off.

The prom ended around 11:30 p.m., and when Barrett showed up ten minutes late, there were empty beer bottles and a cooler in the limousine.

The students did not touch the alcohol and they immediately called their parents, who asked police to check it out.

"I would think the limousine company would look at their people a little bit harder," said Deputy Chief Donald Thompson, of the Haverhill Police Department.

Ashwaubenon board approves sex offender loitering ordinance

2008-06-02T19:10:00.002-04:00

Sex offenders still under state supervision shouldn't be allowed to hang out near parks, schools and other places children might gather within the village, leaders have agreed.

The Village Board on Tuesday approved an ordinance forbidding sex offenders under court-ordered supervision by the Wisconsin Department of Corrections from loitering within 200 feet of restricted zones.

They also won't be allowed to participate in a holiday event involving children under the age of 16, such as distributing candy or other items to children on Halloween.

Sex Offender Arrested outside School

2008-05-31T20:12:00.000-04:00

Members of the South Florida Fugitive Task Force and the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office have arrested a man and charged him with lewd exhibition on a child outside Liberty Elementary in Lake Worth.

Investigators say Robert Hampton had been spotted outside the school on several occasions and flashed children as they were walking home from school.

One of the children saw Hampton's license plate as he drove away and was able to give investigators the information.
Hampton has been arrested twice before on similar charges.

10 states act to stop teacher sex abuse

2008-05-29T23:06:00.002-04:00

Ten states have taken action in recent months to crack down on sexually abusive teachers following a stream of arrests and reports that have documented the problem of educators victimizing students.
Governors, state education officials and lawmakers have led the push for new measures, which include tougher penalties for teachers who abuse students, punishment for administrators who fail to properly oversee their faculty, and an effort to train an entire state's corps of teachers to recognize potential abusers in their midst.
At least four more states are still considering legislation.
They are focusing on an increasingly undeniable phenomenon: While the vast majority of America's roughly 3 million public school teachers are committed professionals, a disturbing number have engaged in sexual misconduct. When faced with evidence of abuse, administrators sometimes fail to let others know about it, and legal loopholes let some offenders stay in the classroom.
"Too often in the past, we as adults have failed our children," Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear said when he signed a new law last month. "Today with this legislation, hopefully, we begin earning back their trust." The measure passed without a single no vote.
Kentucky lawmakers originally drafted a measure aimed at abusive teachers, with the final legislation written broadly to encompass priests, teachers and anyone in authority over someone younger than 18. Besides increasing penalties for abusers and giving prosecutors more time to bring charges, the Kentucky law also takes aim at officials who don't report abuse to authorities.
A nationwide Associated Press investigation, published in October, found 2,570 educators lost their teaching credentials or were otherwise sanctioned from 2001 through 2005 following allegations of sexual misconduct. Experts who track sexual abuse say the problem is even bigger than those numbers suggest. Underreporting is common, they say, because victims often are ostracized and accusations are difficult to prove.
The AP series inspired some of the tougher measures, including Utah's legislation to permanently revoke the licenses of sexually abusive teachers and a new Maine law to share information about teachers disciplined for any reason, including sexual misconduct, with other states. A New York lawmaker cited the AP reports when he rallied support to overturn budget cuts that would have sharply reduced funds for investigators who examine abuse claims in school.
Meanwhile, stories on teacher misconduct by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and The Columbus Dispatch sparked action in Florida and Ohio.
New laws also were passed in Kansas, Minnesota and Virginia, while measures are still being considered in California, Colorado, Delaware and Massachusetts. New York and South Carolina began or expanded programs targeting the problem.
Proposals failed to win legislative approval in Indiana, Missouri, South Dakota, Washington state and West Virginia.
The various measures demonstrate the many loopholes that have allowed abusive teachers to remain in the classroom, including:
_ Backroom deals. Florida's new ethics law for teachers bars school districts from entering into confidential agreements with teachers who get in trouble. Such deals crop up around the country, allowing schools to remove a problem teacher but letting that educator quietly move on to another district or state.
_ Failing to report. Kentucky's law raised the stakes for officials who fail to report allegations of abuse, bringing 90 days in jail for a first offense and up to five years in prison for repeat violations.
_ Problem teachers returning to the classroom. Colorado would require any teacher who lost a license for sexual misconduct to promise never to teach again. The measure awaits Gov. Bill Ritter's signature. Virginia closed a gap that made it possible for teachers who abuse students to be hired by another school district in the time between when they are fired and when the state Education Department is notified.
In New York state, Senate Education Committee Chairman Stephen Saland blasted former Gov. Eliot Spitzer for seeking to cut the investigative unit's $1 million budget in half, accusing Spitzer of declaring "open season on children" for sex predators in schools. He read passages from AP stories that showed the number of "moral conduct" accusations against teachers, administrators and aides had doubled in five years.
The legislature rejected the cuts and instead increased funding to $1.6 million. That will allow for hiring eight more investigators and attorneys to tackle more than 800 pending cases, most of them involving sex with students.
"This will move these people out of the classroom environment more quickly," Saland said. "It's money well spent. In fact, it's a bargain."
South Carolina looked beyond punishment, instead creating a statewide training program that aims to instruct 10,000 teachers, administrators, guidance counselors, coaches and school nurses on how to prevent, identify and report cases of abuse.
Beginning this fall, at least one educator from each of the state's 85 school districts will undergo 6 1/2 hours of training by Darkness to Light, a Charleston-based nonprofit organization. Those educators, in turn, will train at least 20 percent of educators in their district. The state has 50,000 educators.
The training will focus not only on stopping sexual predators but on preventing simply inappropriate relationships, said schools Superintendent Jim Rex. Sometimes young, naive teachers do improper things, with no ill will toward the student, and get into trouble, such as texting students' cell phones or giving them a ride home.
"So much of what schools do is based on trust. Not only must kids trust their teachers, but parents have to trust those teachers too," Rex said. "And schools have to earn that trust each and every day."

Convicted Sex Offender Arrested Again After Entering Elementary School

2008-05-28T21:31:00.001-04:00

Police arrested Carlos Valles shortly after he left T.G. Allen Elementary School on Friday morning. Staff called police after spotting him on campus. He apparently got past the school's security and was looking for his daughter.

Valles was convicted back in 2003 of sexually assaulting his daughter. He was sentenced to ten years probation.

According to the principal, the child's mother contacted the school the day before Valles showed up and told them he was out of prison.

Superintendent Elliff said the elementary school's staff will be reevaluating their security procedures.

Sex offender’s probation extended

2008-05-28T21:26:00.001-04:00

A Level 2 sex offender was in violation of his probation when he was twice seen near Hingham schools, a Norfolk County Superior Court judge has ruled.

The man, who lives in Holbrook, will have his probation extended by two years, will be required to wear a GPS monitor, and must stay at least 75 feet away from all elementary schools and public parks, Hingham police confirmed.

He was stopped by police on March 30 near Hingham High School and March 31 near South Elementary School.

A Hingham resident called police on March 30 after seeing a man driving a white Ford Crown Victoria slowly behind a 12-year-old girl on a bicycle.

The next day, the man was stopped near South Elementary School by a police officer who recognized him from the previous day’s call.

New system will screen school visitors

2008-05-28T21:16:00.002-04:00

As the spring semester winds down, Kanawha County school administrators are looking at ways to enhance campus security for the next academic year.

But one school is ahead of the rest when it comes to screening visitors.
St. Albans High is the only school in the state - and one of about five schools nationwide - using the LobbyGuard system to sign people in and out.

Within minutes, a machine scans a driver's license, does a background check and prints a temporary pass for visitors.

"You're able to lock down the building a lot easier," Principal Tom Williams said. "I think in our society today, you've got to be careful with everything you do."