what do you think?

Yesterday my kid came home with a sealed envelope. Very important! he said. You have to read this!

It was a single piece of paper. On one side, a note from the principal:

This morning we were notified by the superintendent's office of a serious situation in our community of which you should be aware. The police department notified the superintendent of a registered sex offender who resides at [address, complete with apartment number]. His name is [full name] and he was born May 22, 1934. The notice is on the back of this letter and you can call Detective Dawn Lascari if you want more info. The person involved is not wanted or subject to any criminal investigation.

The rest of the letter is all about talking about "Stranger Danger" and how we do the Three R's: Run, Remember and Report.

Finishing with . . Let us know at school if you have a particular concern or need some guidance in speaking with your child. We are all partners in protecting the safety of our children.

On the other side: the note to the school from the police department mentioning that the guy has had numerous arrests for sex assaults against minors dating back to 1963. And here's a place to go look at a photo of him. Yup, I remember seeing him on the site--an old angry-looking dude with level four offenses. He's a high risk pedophile.

Okay here's what I want to write to the principal about being a partner in protecting the safety of our children.

Because you guys made a big deal about this, my kid stood there watching me open the letter. He kept asking me questions, so I eventually handed him the letter. I pointed out that the guy is in his seventies, that he doesn't live very close to us--and the kid didn't freak out as much as he has in the past.

Maybe the kid has finally lost his interest because of constant Fear of Strangers. We've talked about Stranger Danger every year we've lived here because the kids have had that kind of crappy homework every damn year of elementary school. You must go over it in class, too. Once, when I was standing in a grocery line with the kid, I made casual conversation with someone. The boy freaked and told me not to talk to strangers.

When we moved to this area, I knew about the sexual offender line and I looked up the people in the neighborhood. This "serious situation" has been going on for several years. That guy has been living there for at least four years. Clearly he's been living up to the terms of his probation or his ass would be in jail.

I think by posting his name and address on a piece of paper sent home to every family in the school, you're not only scaring the shit out of kids, giving them a Boogieman, you're letting the old sick guy in for some misery. Granted, he's caused plenty of misery in his past, but I don't think that lets you off the Alarm! Alarm! hook.

I can just see some bored middle school kids or pissed off or drunken parents finding that piece of paper with the name and address and deciding what they should do about the old perv in the neighborhood. Over the years you've given the perv too much power to scare the kids and now you've given the neighborhood too much information about the perv. Not good. Next time, don't give out the details on paper, okay? Yes, our kids deserve protection but even the old sex offender deserves protection.

Tell us about the website. Tell us to call for more information. And if you're going to give out details, why not skip his name and specific address and tell us what kind of kids he goes for, his M.O. and what the hell "level four offence" means.

Okay, you guys. What do you think?