Sexual Offenders and Schools: When Criminals Live Nearby

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Thousands of Lewis County parents begin their day with the same process.

Waking children, feeding them, dressing them and then transporting them to school is a simple fixture of everyday life.

Many parents don’t know, however, that in many cases, their children are attending schools that are only a short distance — in some cases, only a matter of feet — from homes occupied by violent sex offenders.

In fact, a Chronicle investigation found that at some area schools, offenders are stationed just across the street.

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Keeping tabs on one of the highest numbers of sex offenders per capita in the state is a big job, but, according to Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield, the Sheriff’s Office is meeting its goal of keeping the public safe.

Part of that is done through notifications to schools, flyer dispersal in neighborhoods and the OffenderWatch website available to the general public. 

“This is a priority,” Mansfield said. “It’s our mission to make people do the things that help people feel safe and secure. And if we’re informing them, if we’re giving them tools to work with, if we’re letting them know what we’re doing and why we’re doing it and what they need to do to keep themselves safe ... we’re meeting that mission.”

Norah West, communications specialist with the Washington State Department of Corrections, said where a sex offender lives once he or she is released from jail depends on his or her crime.

“How many feet they can live within a school or a playground or parks, things like that, we do have some jurisdiction,” she said.

For example, if the offender was convicted of a sex crime involving a school-aged child or it took place at a school, the offender would be prohibited from working or living near a school, West stated in an email. The offender would also be prohibited from traveling by a school within reason.

 

Detective Jamey McGinty is in charge of the county’s sex offender program in Lewis County. 

“Luckily for our county a lot of our schools are within other law enforcement jurisdictions,” McGinty said. “So they’ve got not only us keeping an eye on our offenders and notifications that go out, but you also have the cities being notified too so they’re familiar and aware of the offenders and who they are.”

Keeping students safe not only from sex offenders but also from other potential dangers is a priority of three local principals interviewed by The Chronicle.

“We know we’re not always 100 percent foolproof but we’re doing our best all the time,” said Trisha Smith, principal at R.E. Bennett Elementary in Chehalis.

Smith, Olympic Elementary Principal Brett Ellingson in Chehalis and Oakview Elementary School Principal Jay Sparks in Centralia said their schools file the sex offender notifications that are available for staff to browse.

However, sex offenders know the public is aware of them, McGinty said. And there are people who haven’t been arrested or caught and are getting away with crimes. The schools all work to not only be aware of registered sex offenders, but also watch for suspicious behavior by strangers near the school.

“And they do a fantastic job of identifying any suspicious activities,” Ellingson said about his staff.

 

During recess and before and after classes, the schools have staff not only patrolling and monitoring the campuses, but also talking to people who aren’t supposed to be there.



“We don’t even let anyone park in our parking lot and watch the playground without approaching them,” Smith said.

Smith said her staff also makes an effort to know all parents and guardians by face, and which students belong with them.

Background checks are conducted through the Washington State Patrol for all volunteers who want to help at the schools.

“If they don’t have one done by the time the field trip is happening, they don’t go,” Sparks said. “We just don’t take any chances with it.”

However, it is rare that someone can’t volunteer. Sparks has been the principal at Oakview for five years and said the issue of denying a parent or guardian opportunity to volunteer has come up only a few times and never for sex offenses.

“Even a DUI 10 years ago, we’d red flag and it would land on my desk and I would OK that,” Sparks said.

 

Educating kids about sex offenders living in their neighborhood or near their school should be done in a “stranger danger” sort of way, McGinty said.

If a child is just shown a photo of a registered sex offender and taught to stay away from him or her, they may think that other strangers are safe, he said.

Parents or guardians can also educate children about good and bad touching so if something does happen, they aren’t afraid to communicate that, he said.

All the schools work with students to some degree about safety around strangers. Smith said it’s a subject that has to be approached with caution because administrators and teachers don’t want to scare students. 

Sparks said that at Oakview, a fourth- through sixth-grade school, instructors teach a program called “Steps to Respect,” which teaches being aware of strangers, what to do and being a good bystander.

While there’s more the three principals interviewed would like to do, sometimes it’s just not feasible.

Ideally, Sparks said, Oakview would have more cameras because not only would footage be available if something did happen, but the cameras also act as a deterrent.

“I think there’s a certain zone around the school that … should not have sex offenders living close by,” Sparks said.

Oakview is a school that many students arrive at daily via bus so they’re walking to and waiting for buses outside of the school zone. 

“Do we have oversight of that as far as where sex offenders live? No, we don’t,” Sparks said. “That would be a completely different process. I’m hoping law enforcement has a handle on that, but I don’t know that.”

Mansfield said when the sheriff’s office is informed about sex crimes or incidents involving registered sex offenders, it is “very, very aggressive” about handling incidences.

By being aggressive, Mansfield said they’re protecting potential victims.

“We’re all about educating you and helping you understand who they are, why they do what they do, where they live and what you can do to protect yourself and not put yourself in a position where you could become a victim,” he said.