FAC Letter to FL Department of Education
FAC has sent a letter to the Florida Department of Education on behalf of parents who are being denied access to their children’s school plays, parent-teacher conferences and graduations.
Depriving a child of their parent’s involvement in their upbringing unfairly punishes the child, not the ex-offender. Plus, there is no evidence that parents who are required to register are entering their child’s schools for anything nefarious or for any reason other than to be a parent to their children.
A copy of the letter can be seen here: DOE – Letter 11082019
If you have been denied access to your child’s school event, please let us know.
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Raptor is a good reason to show up at school board meetings, especially if your board hasn’t fallen for it yet. If they have already implemented it, a school board meeting is a good place to talk about how it affects your family.
http://handbasketnotes.blogspot.com/2017/11/raptor-systems-boasts-about-protecting.html
FS 856.022 applies to minor victims. Am I reading that correctly?
In St. John’s County, registered sexual offenders are not permitted at school-sponsored events, such as school plays, and they are not permitted in classrooms, cafeterias, or any part of the school beyond the front office. This is per school district policy and county ordinance.
The school district does have an administrative process by which registrants may be exempt from this policy. It involves providing one’s supervision paperwork for review by the school district’s in-house attorney. I have not tested this process, and it is unclear what the process would be for those no longer on supervision. One principal admitted to me that there’s no precedent for the school district to grant such access to a registrant, but that was several years ago, and hopefully that has changed.
St. John’s County sexual offenders do have the right to transport their own children to and from school and to conduct business in the front office, but, again, no attendance at school-sponsored events. And there may be an additional policy for those designated as sexual predators rather than offenders.
Yes I absolutely have issues. I have a step son in 7th grade. I work from home, wife works at hour away. It he is sick, I cannot go pick him up. He is active in band and theater, I can attend none of these functions. I also have a 2 year old. As things are now I will never be able to attend anything for him. How am I supposed to do vpk?
Great letter. Thanks so much for putting this together. As a follow up, a few weeks ago, my ex-wife & I attended our 4th grade daughter’s parent-teacher conference. As background, our daughter has attended this elementary school since starting kindergarten in the fall of 2015. Back when she started, I met with the school principal & assistant school principal, informing them that, while I had no criminal conviction on my record (adjudication was withheld on a single charge of Transmission of Material Harmful to a Minor who actually wasn’t a minor but a private citizen employed by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office as part of an online sting in an adult chat room back in 2011), I was still required to register as a SO. This conversation was uncomfortable, but they assured me there were no issues whatsoever with participating in my daughter’s education. As a total side, my ex-wife was (and still is) an active volunteer with the school, so there’s a lot of familiarity between the school & our family.
Since 2015, there have been zero issues whatsoever with things like drop offs, pick ups, and attending events like parent conferences & school events where my daughter is a participant. That is, until just a few weeks ago. Upon check-in with my ex-wife at the front office on the morning of our parent-teacher conference, my driver’s license was scanned and I was told to wait — not a problem, as it was expected — but the looks on about half-a-dozen front office staff was insulting to say the least. Apparently, there’s a new “notification system” that has been put in place, so anytime a registrant’s driver’s license gets scanned, authorized computers & smart phones on campus receive an alert with the FDLE website flyer/picture of the registrant letting them know that a SO is currently on-site; accessible public information as we know, but only when someone goes looking for it. Needless to say, I could feel the judging eyeballs of each front office worker piercing through my soul.
After waiting several minutes, my ex & I were escorted to the classroom where we conducted our conference. About 2 minutes into the conference, the school principal — a great guy who knows our family’s situation who even has a daughter that participates in an after school competitive dance studio with our daughter down the street from the school — wound up sitting through our entire parent conference. Once it concluded, he escorted both my ex-wife & I down to his office, where he requested to speak to us for a moment. That “moment” lasted about 30 minutes where, apologetically, he made us aware of the new notification system and procedure at the school. Knowing our situation, he was genuinely upset having to put us through this. He also let us know that, with our permission, he’d be explaining our particular situation to everyone who was notified so that we continued to feel welcome moving forward.
All in all, it was a pretty emotional morning as all the shame and anger about my arrest back in 2011 resurfaced. I’m sure I’m not the only registrant that goes through those cycles. While I never served in combat, I’m convinced that I suffer from PTSD related to the actual arrest itself, as it has led to so many restrictions on my freedom ever since. To have to put my ex-wife through that on a morning where we were only on campus to be supportive parents really, really stings. And now, despite what I’m sure will be a noble attempt by the school principal to put out the fire that has been raised as a result of my driver’s license scan, I’m left to smolder in its ashes for another 18 months until my daughter graduates and moves on to middle school. As far as how she (and/or even my ex-wife) is viewed or treated by the school’s faculty & staff is a total mystery. To combat any brush-back, all I can do is continue to be the “sex offender” living in my community who — once they get to know me — leaves everyone scratching their heads as to why someone without a criminal conviction whose only run-in with the law was related to an undercover sex sting in an adult chat room is still required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Everything said, I am lucky as this is the first time in my 6+ years on the registry where this has happened. I haven’t been denied the opportunity to participate in my daughter’s academic experience. And, I’m grateful for that because I know not every registrant can say that. Nevertheless, this recent experience was painful. Worst part? It was entirely unnecessary.
I can assure you that — each and every single day — it takes the whole of me to channel the rage I have about all of this into healthy, positive, and productive efforts that find SOLUTIONS for navigating the gauntlet that is life as a registrant in Florida.
Thanks to FAC, I never feel alone.
Thank you for sharing that. Blessing to your family.
Thank you for the great read. I feel very fortunate that when my children attended school some 10ish years ago, none of this was a thing where I lived. I was not Registered at the home where my children lived either, so it was very easy to attend school events or whatever and no one had any clue. When I hung out with my children, people knew I was their father but didn’t even know my real name.
When I read these types of stories today I just can’t get past the fact that America is just FULL and overrun with total idiots. What a pathetic, stupid, lazy bunch of “people”! I’ve long held a disdain for the lack of intelligence and the laziness in America. The witch hunt has done nothing but prove I’ve been right forever. I was in school when America was trying to convert over to the metric system but we found out that everyone was too stupid to do it. A real bunch of dipsh*ts.
Anyway, this school horsesht is just ridiculous. It is a very simple fact that any other guy there OTHER than you could be 1,000 times more dangerous than you are. Simple fact and reality. These schools really cannot sensibly justify diverting their attention and focus from ALL people just so they can put extra focus on you. They just can’t. If they would do their jobs, have a brain, and actually protect children, then there wouldn’t even be a need to watch the “worst of the worst”, let alone people like you. Believe me, if some guy was in my kid’s school doing whatever, I wouldn’t give the first fck whether or not that guy was listed on a big government hit list or not – the school damn well better be watching and supervising THAT guy. Forget the flipping hit list.
It’s just idiocy. And in the meantime, Registry Nazis are just fine with letting anyone run around that did anything as long as it didn’t involve $EX!! We know that these laws have nothing to do with public safety or protecting children when they can even create their national, public, lifetime Gun Offender Registries. Or I suppose we are all supposed to believe that people who shoot people with guns are not dangerous. They are okay with shooters living next door to schools!! They are okay with shooters being in schools! I suppose on the mistaken belief that they will know if the person has a gun or not? Who knows how these idiots “think”.
Anyway, I am totally with you about the “rage”. But I nurtured mine and let it grow. I did channel it into healthy, positive, and productive efforts – but only for me, my family, my friends, and people who fight against Registries and big government. The Registries have freed me from having to worry about other people. I live a great life today but I am very, very careful to never do anything that could ever possibly benefit anyone who supports Registries. Those “people” are enemies and I’ll have no concern for them or their families. War is compelled.
Big government says I’m a monster that must be fake “monitored”. I wasn’t before the Registries but I am today. Big government and their boot lickers don’t actually care though. It’s all part of their “crime” business. All they care about is how they feel. So the whole country will suffer.
Anonymous, as I frequently check the national news for articles on registrants, I am coming across a commonly occurring article all over the country touting a new scanning system put into every school within the district where everyone entering the school now has to have their drivers license scanned for the sole purpose of checking to see if the name on the drivers license is on the national registry. It describes exactly what you experienced, and it appears to be spreading quickly from school district to school district in our nation. For some reason, though, they are not checking for murderers, kidnappers, etc. Apparently school districts consider them to be safe individuals for children to be around.
I agree with you about FAC. It is the members of FAC that keep me going. Without all of you, I think I would give up.
Thanks Sarah – it’s Raptor – several counties have installed it.
Raptor’s made millions protecting no one, engaging in security theater and attracting school $.
Both Raptor and OffenderWatch promote the use of taxpayer dollars to “monitor” those who no longer need it, providing a false sense of security. I really wish more scrutiny was applied to these two firms.
Yep. And they loooooove stupid people and taking their money.
I was recently reading about a new OffenderWatch app that is even more idiotic than anything else they’ve done yet. That is quite an accomplishment. It is an app for smartphones, etc. I’m not going to even bother looking up the name or the details again. I do remember it cost $9.99.
I believe a “parent” is supposed to put it on their children’s phone(s) and it will alert them if the child is near a Registered location!!! And other funny nonsense like that. It is true stupidity.
It’s worth a laugh if you want to read their company execs and butt-licking law enforcement people trying to talk it up and promote it. They love the money.
SarahF, kidnapping gets considered a “sex offense” even if no sexual conduct is involved.
Did not know that. So most kidnappers are on the registry.
You might want to correct the date on the letter. Great letter btw.