(Columbia) July 26, 2005 - College students may be
surprised to find out who is working in their school or
sitting next to them in class.
The South
Carolina Sex Offender Registry lists convicted sex
offenders who are working at or attending state colleges
or universities.
Just how dangerous are they? Should you be concerned?
"You won't know. You honestly will not know who's
dangerous and who's not dangerous," says Dr. Jack
Luadzers, a licensed therapist who works with sex
offenders.
On the SC Sex Offender Registry, WIS saw that Clemson
employs three sex offenders. There are 14 sex offenders
at the University of South Carolina.
Ernie Ellis is the Director of USC Public Safety, "To
say all 14 of those are here everyday is not necessarily
accurate, and may be disettling to some people."
Ellis says many of the offenders hired at USC are
transient workers, not full time employees. He said only
two are students, none are housed there.
A check of Newberry and Columbia Colleges found no
sex offenders listed, but it's not necessarily because
they are doing anything different. None of the schools
WIS spoke with have specific practices when it comes to
hiring sex offenders.
Sally Jenkins Harm spoke for Columbia College,
"Actually we don't have a written policy about that. But
we do evaluate everyone who applies to work at Columbia
College."
So what does all of this mean? Not much, according to
Dr. Luadzers. He says because the registry lists many
relatively minor crimes as sex offenses, and no one is
ever removed from it, the registry has created an
alarmist attitude, "You give the people the wrong idea
that your next door neighbor who had a sex offense ten
years ago is a clear and present danger."
He says just because someone is on the registry,
doesn't mean you're any safer, "Not once in my years of
practice have I run across a crime that the
registry has ever prevented. Now you'll find out
about, oh, he was on the sex offender registry,
after the fact."
And he says in many cases the registry may hurt the
people who are trying to put their lives back
together.
Reported by Kara
Gormley
Posted 7:11pm by Chantelle
Janelle
