Parent questions why sex offenders live “near” schools

LEE COUNTY, FL -One resident found a registered sex offender living 51 feet from Pelican Elementary School in Cape Coral.  The man was charged with lewd and lascivious acts involving a minor in 1992. [NOTE: 22 Years Ago – How long is banishment supposed to last?]He has not been arrested in Lee County since then. [NOTE: 22 years offense free]

“It’s an outrage, it’s appalling, it’s disgusting,” said Cape Coral parent Paul Barnes.

Barnes has been on a mission to expose how close sex offenders are living to schools across the Cape since last week when he found out a sex offender had lived next to his children’s school Cape Coral Elementary.

“What he took away from that child, that kid will never get back,” said Barnes in reference to the man living near Pelican Elementary.”

We walked with him as he measured the distance offenders were living near Lee County Schools.

Even though one is more than five football fields away from Challenger Middle School, Barnes thinks that is simply too close. [NOTE: 5 football fields is too close, huh? Maybe there should be a study done to determine if there is a correlation between proximity to schools and re-offense? Wait… they did do studies. There is no correlation]

“They should have it tattooed on their forehead sexual offender. And no they shouldn’t be living across the street from a public school.” [NOTE: He hasn’t educated himself on the fore-mentioned studies. There are those who are uneducated and those who are ignorant and stupid. There are sex offenders who have committed heinous acts and some which were benign or had no direct victim. Maybe we should include this individual in the “ignorant” category and tattoo “IGNORANT” on his forehead?]

Defense attorney Peter Aiken is on the other end of the debate.

“Everybody’s put in the same terrible category, and that’s one of the fundamental problems with our laws right now.”

Aiken says not all sex offenders are the same. [NOTE: Thank you Peter Aiken!]

“Interpreting some of the Florida statutes is a lot like interpreting the Bible. Everybody reads it and gets a different impression.”

Both sides agree the current law needs to be cleaned up.

State Representative Heather Fitzenhagen’s Office says they are working to investigate any loop holes in the state’s statutes.

[NOTE: Notes are commentary and added to the article. They obviously did not appear in the news story]
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