Our Children's Safety

The other day on Fox news, they had an attorney for a convicted sex offender and Marc Klass on to discuss the 2500 foot “barrier” around schools that dictates where a convicted sex offender can and can not live.

The attorney was saying that we are a mobile society and keeping a convicted sex offender from living in that 2500 foot radius makes no sense, as the convicted sex offender can still get in his/her car and go to a school. He also said that the half mile radius was too large and, in an urban area, would just push the convicted sex offender further out, into the suburbs, causing the same problems there.

Marc Klass was agreeing with him on this point.

Is it just me, or isn’t the point of the 2500 foot radius to keep our children from walking past the convicted sex offender’s home on their way to and from school? Generally, (at least in my town) if you are within a half mile of a school there is no bus service and the children must walk to school. I don’t want my children walking past a convicted sex offender’s house twice a day, every school day.

Consider that this rule is to the benefit of both the children and the convicted sex offender. For the children, they don’t have to be so afraid to walk to school. I would think that the sight of many children walking past the house each and every day would pose a great temptation. By removing the convicted sex offender from the path the children walk to school, this temptation just isn’t there.

Without this rule, a convicted sex offender could wait for a child to come by by him/herself and get them into the privacy of their own home quickly, with a much better chance of getting away with it. With the rule, the convicted sex offender must look for victims where it will be harder to do so.

I think our children are far safer with this rule in place, than they are without it.

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