Ask Amy: Sex offender lives in the neighborhood
You can check the registry within your ZIP code to see if your neighbor is registered and what the classification is.
The reason the registry exists is because people should know if sex offenders live in the community because of the need to protect children from predators.
Wearing this virtual scarlet letter is the ongoing consequence of committing a sex crime against a child.
Your neighbors should reveal the offender’s conviction and if he is classified as low-risk, they should reveal that and explain the circumstances – for instance, if he was 19 and had a sexual relationship with a person under the age of consent in his state. (A convicted person can go to jail with a level one offense, but the penalty also seems to depend on the state where the offense occurred.)
In short, I am suggesting that the convicted offender and his wife do the ethical thing by notifying others of his criminal status.
They most likely won’t do that, and so yes – you should let parents in your circle know.
People notified should make every effort to independently verify the information through a neutral source, such as the sex offender registry. (Check nsopw.gov.)
Dear Amy: I have a weird parenting question.
My four-year-old takes a short nap after she comes home from preschool.
After her nap yesterday she came down the stairs and her hair had been cut!
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