AL- SGA celebrates win on sex offender bill

How does one fix this stupid law? Look at the facts used to support it, unbelievable! If they wish to help students they need better leaders than these who are stuck in their biases..

7-30-2009 Alabama:

By Alabama law, registered sex offenders cannot live within 2,000 feet of a day care, foster home or a K-12 school.

Following the SGA's lobbying during the 2009 legislative session, they now cannot come within 2,000 feet of the UA campus or any other Alabama college campus. Gov. Bob Riley formally signed the bill Friday with SGA officials in Montgomery.

State Rep. Jamie Ison, R-Mobile, who sponsored the bill in the House, said she applauded the SGA for supporting the bill and implementing programs to protect student safety.

“For students who are away from home for the very first time, there’s a valid reason why we’d want to protect those students,” Ison said. “There is nothing that would have prevented a convicted sex offender from living in the dorm next to a freshman student before.”

So what, sex offenders live next to people and never offend, what proof does this lawmaker have that ANY sex offender will re-offend if living next door to a college student?

UA spokesman Chris Bryant said in an e-mail that the scenario of a sex offender living in a dormitory was impossible even before the legislators passed the bill preventing them from living on campus. He said the housing application mandated that students reveal any felony convictions, including sex offenses.

With regards to the application, Bryant said all information is taken into consideration.

Ison said she sponsored this bill after three girls from her district were allegedly sexually assaulted three years ago. And with two sons at the University, she said she felt a personal connection to the issue.

There are sexual assaults all over the nation, what was the connection between the cited one and the University? She doesn't draw any connection.

Former SGA President Cason Kirby said the location of the assaults were very close to campus, included in the area that will be protected in the new law that takes effect in August.

Again, so what, were the assaults by FORMER REGISTERED sex offenders? Notice how they draw no connection to RSOs.

“Student living is very centered around the heart of campus,” Kirby said.

A registered sex offender will be able to attend classes at colleges and universities, but according to the bill, that person will not be able to work on college campuses. The person will also be barred from loitering on campus beyond class time.

While the bill cannot protect every student living around Tuscaloosa, Ison said it helps to have the bill focused on areas where many students live.

The bill does not exclude non-violent offenders charged with crimes such as statutory rape, a measure Ison said was not needed because fewer people are charged with such offenses.

“I think that the folks who are the sex offenders are the ones who are violent offenders,” she said.

There clearly is a problem with her thinker!

To continue protection for students, SGA President Steven Oliver said the SGA will step up its Crimson Watch program to help off-campus students be safe in their neighborhoods.

“We really want to put that extra step in there for students,” he said. ..Source.. by Amanda Peterson