Bill seeks to ban sex offenders from working with kids

June 20, 2010
By BEN WIEDER

Convicted sex offenders can legally work as tutors, coaches and in other positions where they are close to children, according to Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Sunday he said he would propose legislation to change that.

Schumer's legislation would make it illegal for registered sex offenders to work or volunteer in positions that put them in "direct and substantial" contact with children.

It would also require business owners to confirm that employees or volunteers in these types of positions are not registered sex offenders. Businesses not in compliance would be fined, Schumer said, with escalating penalties for repeat offenders.

Schumer credited Laura Ahearn, executive director of Parents for Megan's Law and The Crime Victims Center in Stony Brook, with the idea for the proposed law.

Ahearn said many parents mistakenly believe that such laws currently exist.

"There's this assumption that the law is protecting them, but the reality is that it's not," she said.

Ahearn said businesses in New York can check whether an employee is a registered sex offender by contacting the Division of Criminal Justice Services online or at 800-262-3257.

Her organization operates the federally funded Sex Offender Registration Tips, or SORT program, which investigates complaints about alleged violations by sex offenders. About half of the cases her office investigates are referred to authorities, Ahearn said.

In 2009, Ahearn said, her organization investigated the case of convicted sex offender and former schoolteacher Bradley Dieffenbacher, of Levittown. Dieffenbacher, on probation for an earlier sex offense conviction, worked as a private tutor for a 15-year-old boy in Suffolk County. SORT program staff determined the job violated terms of his probation and they contacted authorities, she said. Dieffenbacher was sent back to prison.

Ahearn said roughly 80 percent of registered sex offenders aren't serving parole or probation, which means they are not barred from holding such positions, which they would be if Schumer's legislation passes.

"There's absolutely nothing law enforcement can do," she said. Her program notifies parents and employers in such situations, she said.

By By BEN WIEDER
Posted Sunday, August 8, 2010

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