Governor Christine Gregoire signed SB 5428 into law yesterday, ensuring that schools get alerted about the release of sex offenders from adult detention centers from now on.
Before the bill’s passing, state law required that schools get notified when state and county juvenile detention centers released sex offenders. But if the sex offender was 21-years-old or younger, and was released from an adult facility, there was no notification whatsoever.
That has now changed. The new legislation requires that, 30 days before the release of a youth, who is convicted of a violent offence, a sex offence, or stalking and is currently incarcerated in an adult facility, public officials must notify the district in which the youth lives or plans to live.
The bill, which was requested by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn, helps to strengthen legislation currently in place for juvenile institutions. The issue was brought before him by lobbyist Marcia Fromhold on behalf of all the school districts in Washington.
what’s next, a scarlet letter?
look, I understand there are risks and parents are right to be concerned, but …
Yes. Notifying schools and the parents of children who will be going to school with a convicted sexual predator fresh from prison–closing a loophole that allowed those who got stuck in the big-boy prison instead of the juvenile facility to avoid notification–that’s just ridiculous harassment on par with branding not-actual-criminals with red letters, circa 1640.
Are you fucking kidding me with this shit, Will?
I’d agree with you more, lily, if kids weren’t getting on sex offender registries for stupid shit like sexting and dating people six months younger than them.
@2 no, I’m just saying one’s innate reaction (pro-warning) may or may not be the optimal response.
I can see warning the Principal and Vice-Principal. But Canadian Nurse is saying what I was trying to get at.
One of the things our society has lost due to the One-Size-Fits-All mentality we use with laws (e.g. uniform mandatory sentances, all sex crimes are the same) is that we lose the gradient nature.
Judgement and appropriate reaction, if you will.
As a result we get places like Florida where most of the sex offenders are literally forced to live in the southern part of the state – which puts kids THERE at higher risk, as a result.
FYI — in the US we spell the word “offense”, not “offence”.
possible offenders or not?
Be careful what you ask for.
Ms. Nurse, I could see resisting this if the teens weren’t slipping through the cracks by mere technicality. Kids who are convicted sex offenders who served time in juvy are already required to disclose this.
And anyway, we’re not talking about teen sexters, are we? Has there even been a case of a teen in WA (I know it’s happened in other states, but I am unaware of an in-state example) being arrested and convicted of a sex crime requiring registration as a sex offender because they “distributed” “kiddie porn” (e.g. sent ill-advised nudie pictures of themselves to their asshole boy/girlfriends who then oh so helpfully distributed it to the entire school)?
We’re talking of kids who were convicted of sex crimes with circumstances deemed bad enough to get sent to an adult prison. And although I would argue that children never belong in an adult prison anyway, it seems unlikely that the sexting teens would be sent there rather than to the more appropriate juvenile facility… where upon release, if they had gone to the juvenile facility in the first place, they would still have to disclose their status as a convicted sex offender.