It has concerned me for some time that some of our members think they can visit schools in Florida once they are off all sanctions. Florida Statute 856.022, subsection (1) lists the criminal offenses, where the victim was under 18 years of age at the time of the offense, for which certain requirements must be followed. Any person who violates any of these requirements commits a misdemeanor of the first degree.
Florida Action Committee is not a law firm and can only share what the statute states.
Taking an excerpt from F.S. 856.022:
(4) It is unlawful for a person described in subsection (1) to:
(a) Knowingly approach, contact, or communicate with a child under 18 years of age in any public park building or on real property comprising any public park or playground with the intent to engage in conduct of a sexual nature or to make a communication of any type with any content of a sexual nature. This paragraph applies only to a person described in subsection (1) whose offense was committed on or after May 26, 2010.
(b)1. Knowingly be present in any child care facility or school containing any students in prekindergarten through grade 12 or on real property comprising any child care facility or school containing any students in prekindergarten through grade 12 when the child care facility or school is in operation unless the person had previously provided written notification of his or her intent to be present to the school board, superintendent, principal, or child care facility owner;
2. Fail to notify the child care facility owner or the school principal’s office when he or she arrives and departs the child care facility or school; or
3. Fail to remain under direct supervision of a school official or designated chaperone when present in the vicinity of children. As used in this paragraph, the term “school official” means a principal, a school resource officer, a teacher or any other employee of the school, the superintendent of schools, a member of the school board, a child care facility owner, or a child care provider.
Exceptions are noted at the bottom of the statute.
As stated in F.S. 856.022, “This paragraph (4)(a) applies only to a person described in subsection (1) whose offense was committed on or after May 26, 2010.” It means exactly what it says it means. Paragraph (4)(a) is a paragraph. If the Legislature meant for the entire section to not apply to persons with offenses on or after May 26, 2010, then that is what the law would say. F.S. 856.022 is a section. (4)(a) is a paragraph within the section.
All of F.S. 856.022 applies to all persons forced to register due to an offense with a victim under age 18 except the part about approaching a minor to discuss sexual matters in paragraph (4)(a).
An educated guess as to why the exception was added to paragraph (4)(a) would be that FDLE advised the Legislature at the time that since this was a prohibition on speech, which must survive strict scrutiny and not the much lower “rational relationship” test for prohibitions that do not involve fundamental rights, it would be safer to not make that specific provision retroactive.
There is no fundamental right to loiter, prowl, or be present in a K-12 school. There is a fundamental right to have freedom of speech.
In November of 2019, FAC sent a letter to the Commissioner of the Florida Department of Education after receiving complaints from parents who were denied access to their children’s school events. You can read the reply we received here.
For the protection of those people who fall under the specifications given in F.S. 856.022, subsection (1), please follow the requirements given in this statute.
I appreciate the help I received from members in gathering data for this post.
I should add that the 7 years of SO probation was cut down to 2 and was placed on administrative probation for the remaining 5 years.
What if I belong to an organization that holds their annual members’ picnic in a public park in Orlando (Orange County)? Can I safely attend the picnic without worrying that a cop will see my car’s license plate in the parking lot and come looking for me to say that I’ve violated?
My offense was mid 1992 and sentencing was January 1993. I was released after a year and then had 8 years of probation. At this point, I have no supervision of any kind, other than having to register twice a year. I have no problems going to concerts or other such events, but I’ve always wondered about any of my organization’s events that they decide to hold in Orlando parks.
Old timer, I’ve looked into this and found no ordinance that prohibits a PFR who is off supervision/probation from going to city parks in Orlando.
As long as your not loitering. You don’t have any restrictions that I’m aware of. So if you have a valid reason for being there you should be ok. Unless there is some county ordinance I think you should be ok. But id call and ask a lawyer just to be sure. But I take my kids to parks all the time.
All these people on here giving you advice could cause you to get arrested. I would contact the school, your attorney, the sheriff’s office/local police department and the Florida department of law enforcement. Every one of them will probably give you a different answer, making it even more scary.
Nothing is worth getting re-arrested. I recently learned that even if I get removed from the registry, that will not change a lot because there will still be pages and pages of places we cannot go as felons and things we cannot do.
I have survived 33 years as a felon by asking my self one question, is it worth it, and if not, don’t do it. And when not sure, don’t do it or if you have to do it, do every bit of research and get names of who you spoke with and maybe if they are willing, something in writing. For example, permission to be at a certain place, like a function, with info stated such as who you spoke with, their name, what they allowed etc.
Always check what the county ordinances state.
Look at what this post really reveals: the uncertainty so many of us, if not all of us, feel about every aspect of our daily lives. We’re not lawyers and can’t afford lawyers. We don’t want to get arrested or go to jail, so we sit and do nothing and live half-lives until we die…which is what they want.
I am so paralyzed by uncertainty that I end up going nowhere and doing nothing. There is no simple, straightforward, easy to read locate standard to follow. Moreover, the rules change with every jurisdiction – federal laws, state laws, county ordinances, city ordinances, etc. I constantly feel overwhelmed by the possibility that I’m inadvertently breaking some law I misunderstood or didn’t even know about. It’s emotional torment.
Anyway, the fact that this post can generate this many questions and this many disagreements this quickly is evidence of the much larger underlying problem: that the laws are a quagmire of confusing and ever-changing legalese that’s too difficult for a normal person to follow.
A lot of lawyers become state or federal legislators. I knew a couple of them many years ago who bragged that the more complicated and nebulous they make our laws, the more lawyers will be needed to solve the problems they’ve created. That makes them indispensable – our pain becomes their profit.
“we sit and do nothing and live half-lives until we die…which is what they want.”
Of course that is the quiet part out loud. It’s a controlled demolition of our lives. It’s petty and spiteful in nature. They don’t want us to thrive, be happy and live in peace. Heck, they’re even angry that we have kids of our own. This is the “slow burn” long-game where they let the clock run down on us intentionally, kneeling with the ball on every play while we’re forth and long. And of course they block the punt every time.
Well said.
Legitimate, moral governments do not operate like this. Criminal regimes do.
We have to stop pretending that “people” who think Registries should exist are acceptable. They are not. They are certainly not good, moral, freedom loving Americans. They are harassing terrorists who harass families. So they must always be treated and disrespected as the dangerous terrorists that they are. Don’t normalize them. Don’t accept them. They are enemies.
Do not let Registry A**holes/Supporters/Terrorists lower the quality of your family’s lives. Instead, those are some of the consequences that the terrorists deserve today and in the future.
Love your name, btw. But I think I’d use Lauren NotBook NotCriminal. Or perhaps something even more despicable and accurate.
@Lauren
From my personal experience, you could speak with 10 lawyers, 10 judges, and 10 law makers, and get 10 different answers. All of them cannot be right and all of them cannot be wrong. I think it is a mix of knowledge and lack of knowledge, as well as the way they interpret the laws, or ordinances and statues.
Florida State law (F.S. 856.022) makes it a first-degree misdemeanor for a person forced to register to commit the offense of loitering and prowling (normally a second-degree misdemeanor) within 300 feet of any place where children are congregating. There is no state law that prohibits persons forced to register from being present in a park for a lawful purpose.
However, there are MANY county and municipal ordinances throughout the state that prohibit persons forced to register from being in or near a park, so you absolutely must check your county and municipal ordinances. Here in Miami-Dade County, it is a crime for a person forced to register whose victim was under the age of 16 to merely be present in a county or city park if there are any children in the park at the time, with a maximum punishment of a year in jail.
These are the minefields we are forced to navigate as citizens stripped of many of our fundamental rights.
RM
And a rogue cop who has nothing better to do than arrest us could put us back in prison for simply cutting through a park. The law makers are making sure there are ways to get all of us back on paper, or locked up.
Well said. I fully agree.
I’d like to consult an attorney for clarification on this actually. In my opinion it’s a little unclear based on the Guidelines document FDLE compiled earlier this year.
Page 47 –
“CAUTION! The following prohibited activities and restrictions are NOT part of Florida registration laws, and FDLE does NOT determine if a person meets the criteria for these prohibitions or restrictions. Please consult with your agency’s legal counsel or your jurisdiction’s State Attorney’s Office for questions on the following prohibitions and restrictions. The state laws listed below are separate from sexual predator or sexual offender registration laws and are based on a person’s conviction, not on their status as a sexual predator or sexual offender. ”
To clarify my confusion, my husband received adjudication withheld in relation to an offense involving a minor in 2011. He was recently called for jury duty but was nervous to participate so he asked to speak to the judge and attorneys privately to explain his circumstances. When he was called up and explained his status, the judge advised he could participate as adjudication withheld means he was not convicted. As we all know, the registry does not work that way. However, this document seems to say that the loitering and prowling law is strictly based on conviction. So like voting and jury duty, does this law in fact not apply to him considering adjudication was withheld?
We don’t have the funds to pay a lawyer right now but I’m very curious about this.
so basically what it means if I need to attend my 12 years old son graduation I need to have an school escort with me at all times! that’s absurd, do they think people will go through the embarrassment? of course not! for them is perfectly fine because they think shame is part of your sentence and is the consequences of your acts.
When I went to visit my dying mother at the local hospital – before they moved her to the hospice center – an impromptu “security detail” consisting of 4 rent a cops was outside the hospital room door when I went to the nurse station to request a water pitcher refill. They were side-eyeing me as I walked past them. IT WAS SO CREEPY AND PATHETIC!
I was too angry to feel shame because it felt more like being subjected to weird cultish behavior
I mean, if they had to do that, wouldn’t one security person be sufficient? The other three could have been doing regular rounds protecting other patients, visitors and staff.
I worked at a place once that had tons of security inside but none outside. When we left for the day, all of our cars had been broken into, including the cars of the security staff. Go figure, classic fox guarding the hen.
Do not ever feel or accept shame. If a person does something wrong, then it is appropriate to feel shame for that. That does not extend to the clearly immoral, idiotic Registries and the even more idiotic “restrictions”/actions which they enable and promote.
I’ve been listed on the Registries for decades. One thing it did for me very quickly though was to destroy any shame, empathy, or accountability that I had for what I did to get listed in the first place. I got over all of that pretty quickly. I paid for what I did. In full and then some. The Registries are obviously not for public safety, protecting children, or any of their other lies. The criminal regimes and their immoral supporters lost their moral high road long, long ago. I haven’t had to care about my actions for a very long time. I don’t see that changing. The Registries freed me of that.
Here’s the original 856.022 statue from 2010: https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2010/856.022
It was enacted by this act/rule: https://laws.flrules.org/files/Ch_2010-092.pdf
“Section 19. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.
Approved by the Governor May 26, 2010.
Filed in Office Secretary of State May 26, 2010”
Therefore, the entire statute cannot be enforced on anyone whose date of offense is prior to May 26, 2010. If it has been, this statute is ripe for challenge under ex post facto and denial of due process, IMHO.
To prevail in an ex post facto lawsuit, as suggested above, one would presumably have to prove to the court that barring registered sex offenders from schools is not actually a safety measure. Along the way, one would have to put up with headlines such as, “Sex Offenders Sue to Get Access to Schools.”
Can they? Yes.
Is it a good idea? Absolutely not.
Things is, these new security measures at schools feature facial rec and license plate readers and are most likely in please at all exits. So, do you want to tempt your fate young grasshopper?
They don’t care about context or nuance. as to why you’re there.
Facts
And the embarrassment of possibly getting arrested in front of your kid 🙁
F.S. 856.022, paragraph (4)(b)1, which pertains to being present in a child care facility or school, does not list any exemptions. FAC is not a law firm. If you have any questions concerning the interpretation of this statute, you should consult an attorney. We are only sharing what the statute says. Please be careful.
I can not answer that I am not an Attorney. I was seeking clarification as well.
So my conviction was in 2008 and I have a daughter in 2nd grade. Am I exempt from this?
No, you are not exempt from F.S. 856.022 if the victim of your offense was under the age of 18 and you are required to register in Florida. Due to the date of your offense, you are only exempt from the paragraph that makes it a crime to approach a child to discuss anything of a sexual nature while in a park.
When it comes to that provision, all I can say is that in my opinion, if a person forced to register were caught by the police doing that, regardless of the date of their offense the police would find something to arrest them for, such as F.S. 787.03 (“Interference with Custody,” which is a third degree felony–more severe than the misdemeanor created by F.S. 856.022).
Incognito, Best thing is to do follow follow the guidelines in 4(B)(1)(2)and (3). Reach out to the principle and ask for a meeting and explain your situation. If you get his permission in writing then when you wish to attend just let him know so I can assign someone to watch over you while on campus.
Do not let this ruin you being a parent. You only get one shot at that. Your offense was over 16 years ago. Explain that.
Good Morning,
So what you are saying is that if your offense was before 2010 4A does not apply but the rest does. I mean all my kids are grown, well my older 2 and my senior is homeschooled so I have no reason to be at a school anyway.
Thank you for info and clarification
My conviction was in 2008, so is it saying I can go to my daughter’s school functions?
I was never prohibited from being anywhere where children under 18 gathered, including schools, churches, parks, playgrounds. And I was never prohibited from living within 1000 feet of a school or anywhere children would gather. Yet, I still had to register even though the judge in my case never included registration in my sentencing memorandum. It still baffles me to this day.
Peter, it does not matter whether or not the judge mentioned the registry in your sentencing memorandum. The registry is not part of your sentence, but a collateral consequence of your conviction. I’ve said it before, but I wish that the registry was written into criminal statutes as punishment like incarceration and fines. It would then unambiguously be punishment and ex post facto claims would be much easier. As it stands, the registry is a “civil regulatory” measure. So legislatures essentially have carte blanche to impose restrictions in the name of public safety, not punishment.
I did have one question about your post. You said you were never prohibited from entering various locations. My question is, prohibited by whom? You may very well be prohibited from those places and not know it because you had not read every statute, ordinance or binding court precedent. You are subject to the whim of any political body that can make a law at any level. States like Florida really suck in that regard.
It was written in the sentencing memorandum by the Judge in my case. My case involved calling an escort service asking for a date with one of the girls pictured on the website. To make a long story short, the girl was a minor working as an escort. My attorney worked out a plea deal for 4 years in prison, but at the sentencing hearing, the judge threw out the deal saying that it was too harsh. At my hearing, one of my witnesses who testified on my behalf was the woman from the Probation and Parole office who wrote my recommendation for the court asking for no jail time, and 5 years of sex offender probation. In his decision, the judge said that he had never seen a case like mine, said that “even though this wasn’t entrapment in the legal sense, it was a form of entrapment. He was set up”. I did 3 months in county, 7 years of SO probation. When the ASA asked about being around minors, he interrupted her and said “no, this case doesn’t require those prohibitions of being around minors, or living near schools. I live less than 1,000 feet from a high school and the sheriff’s office never gave me a problem.