6-20-2010 National:
ALBANY -- State laws nationwide prohibit sex offenders from working as school teachers and coaches, but most laws don't cover karate instructors, youth coaches, carnival workers, clowns, magicians, or dance instructors in the private sector when public funds aren't involved.
Sen. Charles Schumer of New York wants to change those circumstances, and is proposing a national measure that would apply to sex offenders in these and other jobs even when their employers don't get public funds. The measure would cover people who are paid or volunteer to do the work.
"Convicted sex offenders should not be able to hold any job or volunteer position where they have interaction with children in New York or across the country, period," Schumer said. "The fact that these sex offenders are able to coach our children's teams, operate rides at fairs, and teach them dance and music is beyond scary and we must take immediate action to stop it. My hope is that my new legislation closes this huge loophole so no children are put into harm's way."
Additional jobs that could come under the measure would be tutors, youth mentors, workers at recreation centers, video arcades, and children's museums.
The measure would require states to pass laws prohibiting employment of sex offenders in those private sector jobs or lose out on specific federal funding.
"Dangerous loopholes exist in local and state laws which allow convicted sex offenders to work in positions of trust where they can have unlimited access to potential child victims," said Laura A. Ahearn, executive director of Parents for Megan's Law and the Crime Victims Center.
Officials with the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment Sunday on the measure. ..Source.. MICHAEL GORMLEY
June 20, 2010
Schumer: Close loopholes in sex offender law
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3 comments:
On the surface, such a law seems to make sense, as many of these sex offender laws do. Unfortunately, the label, "sex offender", is applied all too broadly. Consider the young man in college who attends a party with his girlfriend. They have too much to drink. Lines are blurred. She says that he crossed one. He takes a plea deal to avoid going to jail. He has to register as a sex offenders. He later marries and has a family and lives a productive life in society. Should he be prohibited from being a coach of his son's Little League baseball team?
If Shumer and Ahearn want legislation to protect kids in recreational or entertainment situations, they should write a law that prohibits all parents from either taking their children to entertainment settings or engaging in sports activities with them. Parents are the primary perpetrators of child sexual abuse so let's make sure they don"t have any time with their children in the settings identified by Shumer and Ahearn as likely trouble spots.
"Convicted sex offenders should not be able to hold any job or volunteer position where they have interaction with children in New York or across the country, period,..."
So there goes fast food, restaurants, stores, etc. Why not just pass a law restricting former offenders to only industrial or white collar? Well, we know white collar will shy away from hiring a RSO so we'll have to legislate former offenders to industrial / labor... a new slave class.
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