Story shows issues of registered offenders

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Wednesday, July 29, 2015 at 3:19 pm (Updated: August 10, 12:51 pm)

Editor, The News:

Re: “Neighborhood controversy” story, front page, July 23 News.
According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children map, there are more than 843,260 men, women and children (as young as 8 and 10 in some states) required to register and the “crimes” range from urinating in public (indecent exposure), sexting, incest, mooning, exposure, false accusations by a soon-to-be ex-wife, angry girlfriend, or spiteful student, viewing abusive OR suggestive images of anyone 18 years old or younger, playing doctor, prostitution, solicitation, Romeo and Juliet consensual sexual dating relationships, rape, endangering the welfare of a child and many others.
If you multiply the number on the registry by 2 or 3 family members you can clearly see there are well over 3 million wives, children, moms, aunts, girlfriends, grandmothers and other family members who experience the collateral damage of being harassed, threatened, children beaten, have signs placed in their yards, homes set on fire, vehicles damaged, asked to leave their churches and other organizations, children passed over for educational opportunities, have flyers distributed around their neighborhood, wives lose their jobs when someone learns they are married to a registrant....all these things occur when these people try to hold their family together and provide the three things that professionals state are needed for successful re-integration; a job, a place to live and a good support system.
We ask legislators to please pass laws that WILL actually help protect children, teens and the public.
We need Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Training Programs with state funding to be taught where 95 percent of the offenses occur; family home, school, church, scouts, training programs to empower kids and teens to protect themselves as much as possible and to speak up if someone makes them uncomfortable or starts to overstep their bounds.
We want to be proactive instead of reactive.
We are interested in any initiative that will teach and educate the public as well as allow our families to live a law-abiding life in peace.
Take care,

Vicki Henry
President
Women Against Registry