You may not know that, but you may know me. My son Billy is in third grade at Cooper Elementary. I drop him off and pick him up most days, and I have attended several of the parent days and parent lunches there with you. The superintendent has given me permission, and that was all that was needed. Now that has changed. Before I can come to school for any reason again, I have to run an ad like this one, at my expense, for two weeks. There will be a hearing at the end of the two weeks, and any of you who want to keep me from going on school property are invited to come and speak against me. As I understand the legislative bill, only negative testimony will be heard. Apparantly they don't want anyone saying anything good about me. Anyway, here's the notice, and it will run every day for two weeks, and then the meeting will be held in the board room at the administration building at 7 p.m. on February 28. See ya'll there!
If you aren't laughing by now, if you realize that this is real, then I hope that you are crying. The bill calling for everything outlined above, Virginia House Bill 1366, has passed the House Courts of Justice Committee unanimously. The full House of Delegates votes on the bill Tuesday, February 3--TODAY.
We are in the midst of a whirlwind at this point in time. More and more studies are being released, showing what we have been saying for years, and more and more journalists are writing the facts and the truth, and everything they write points to the utter ridiculousness of legislation such as this. And then the crosswinds of more restrictions and harsher laws and legislation based on nothing resembling facts and truth threaten to blow us away, especially, it seems, in the South.
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I cringe for every child of every registered parent in the state of Virginia. Did the proponents of this horrible legislation consider them, I wonder, even for a moment?What most registered parents of school children will choose, of course, in order to avoid the pain and humiliation and bullying and all the other negative consequences to their children, is to not place the ads, to not ask for a hearing, and to quietly remove their presence from their children's school lives.
Someone else will take them and pick them up. No more parent days or field trips or school lunches shared. No parent or counselor conferences. No school plays or basketball games to cheer on the budding actresses or future NBA stars. They will become the invisible parents, parents not allowed to do what even the most ignorant legislator surely knows is vital for optimizing the future of America.
They will no longer be involved, for thirteen years, in what is the major part of their children's lives.
These people are fools.
ReplyDeleteIt is not only a way to shame the registered person, but it is also a proposal that will ensure only a rich man could afford to do this. Newspapers charge about 60 cents or so per word for an obituary. How much more would they charge for an ad by an RSO?
ReplyDeleteEven at the 60 cent rate (that's how much I paid for my mom's obituary), the mock ad ad you posted is exactly 180 words long. That would be $108.00 for your one paragraph ad. Now multiply that for two weeks. $108 x 14 = $1512.
Fifteen hundred bucks isn't chump change, especially to Registered Citizens, most of whom are unemployed or working menial jobs.
It is simply a way to keep registrants out of schools while not appearing to make a total ban.
The real offenders are the State Legislators who's ongoing hate campaign consistently and illegally target the rights and freedoms of their citizens; for now the registered sex offender, but in time they will come after all citizens rights. Actually, our US Congress and state legislators are attacking our rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness daily. Wake up America!
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ReplyDeleteIt was a duplicate; accidentally got posted twice.
DeleteI live in Virginia and this bill goes a bit too far in this sex offender issue. I don't care what the parents did in their life they still need the love of their children. Governments should respect that right but government rules with its congressman and senator's and those that are proud to get their bills passed. It gives them pride that they can take an issue like the sex offender and use it against someone, just for picking up their kids at school. Does the registry notification really save someone?
ReplyDeleteJesus saves. Man compounds.
Commit a sex crime, your life (and by extention that of your family) is ruined. The answer is to not commit a crime.
ReplyDeleteTeens and adolesence are committing these crime's every day . Some get pregnent have children and don't have to register as sex offenders and collect state and federal support , and by the extention of their family is not ruined but exteneded thru out the life time of exsistance .
DeleteThe sad truth is most are born drug addicted from drug addicted sex abusive first time relationships .
That leaves us where we are today with those of whats considerd legal age of long term incarceration for gun related deaths of the youths in what used to be america the land of the free . Now the home of the slaves . So the answer is who is committing the crime after time served ? Those that lie and are collecting pentions keeping the fear alive with false protection .
The registry is filled with those whose offenses were committed when they were teen--minors--adolescents. Your remarks about drug addicts are serious over-generalizations. These are the same type of generalizations that allow people to hate everyone on the registry just because they are on the registry.
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