The sex offender next door

The balance between public safety and individual privacy Editor’s note: A parent notified the editor of one of our sister papers of her desire to have a school bus stop moved away from a registered sex offender’s house. A group of editors from Straus News met to discuss the story and decided to run the local story without any identifying marks, in that way highlighting the issue without hurting someone who has already paid his debt to society. It’s a quiet street of neatly trimmed lawns and tidy middle class houses. School age children play in their yards and on the street. That bucolic picture isn’t all that it seems for one mother, who has lived here for eight years. She said she is “uncomfortable” with where her kindergartner hops on and off his school bus every day, right across the street from her neighbor, a registered sex offender. He was convicted of sexual assault against a boy in 2003, less than a year after this mother moved in. He served over four years in prison, according to the State Parole Board, and is mandated to community supervision for the rest of his life. He is listed as a tier 2 offender (see box). This mother wants the school district to move the bus stop. She said it is “creepy” knowing that when the children get on and off the bus, the sex offender may be watching them. The school district offered to move her child, to another stop up or down the street. But she won’t do that. “They suggested I move my son and leave the others,” said the mother. “What kind of person would I be?” The bus picks up five children at this stop. The other parents know of the situation, she said, but no one else has complained, nor have they asked to have their children moved. If any of the parents want their children moved to another stop, the school district will honor those requests, according to a school official. In this particular case, the next stop is about five houses away. None of the proposed solutions satisfy this mother, and so she approached the newspaper to tell her story. “We decided to write this story because this could happen in any neighborhood,” said Jeanne Straus, president of Straus News, which publishes this newspaper. “We have elected not to use the sex offender’s name nor disclose the town because we believe ‘the systems’ are working well. The school gave the mother what seems to us a reasonable solution — to move her son to another stop. The parole officer uncovered a parole violation.” This mother has called school board members, various school officials, township elected officials and even her local Congressmen. They all sympathize with her concerns but say it is up to the district and the parents. Update State parole officers removed the man from his home April 5. The State Parole Board confirmed officers arrested the man after a search of his house uncovered two weapons and child pornography. The search occurred at the instigation of the man’s parole officer after a meeting. The man was charged with two counts of unlawful possession of a weapon and two counts of “certain persons not to possess weapons.” Both are third degree offenses and are punishable with three to five years in prison. Police also charged him with one count of possession of child pornography and one count of violating his community supervision for life. These are fourth degree offenses, subject to up to 18 months in prison. He met his bail and returned home.

What it means
Sex offenders are listed by levels. Not all sex offenders have committed crimes of the same severity.
Tier 1 — Low likelihood to re-offend. When someone labeled a Tier 1 offender moves into a municipality, the state notifies law enforcement.
Tier 2 — Moderate chance to re-offend. The state notifies law enforcement, schools, day care facilities and summer camps when a person labeled Tier 2 moves into town.
Tier 3 — High probability to re-offend. When a Tier 3 offender moves in, the state notifies all of the agencies listed above along with members of the public.
What is legal
Many New Jersey towns had a law on their books that prohibited registered sex offenders from living within a certain distance of schools, parks and day care centers. That law was repealed last year in many places for several reasons, including that sex offenders could sue a municipality over it. To limit where this group can live based on school bus stops that are scattered throughout every town would literally leave no place for them to live.