Monday, February 2, 2015
Statement Concerning Sexual Offender Attending School Event
Director of Schools, Dr. Bill Heath, and Sheriff, Jimmy Brown, have met concerning the events that occurred at Ethridge School last week regarding a sexual offender attending a school event.
The individual appeared with the child’s mother and was represented as being the child’s grandfather and asked to have breakfast with the child.
The Principal and SRO Officer, after discussion with the Sherriff’s Department, permitted the individual supervised access to the cafeteria. At no time was the individual unsupervised and at no time were any of the children, the staff, or the faculty under any threat.
After review of the situation, it has been determined that going forward, no sexual offender, as such is defined in Tennessee statute, will be permitted or allowed to remain on the premises of any building or grounds of any school in the Lawrence County School System, nor on any athletic field when there is any children under the age of 18 years old present, with the limited exception that an offender who is a parent or legal guardian of a child, may attend a conference with school officials, after having received written permission or a request from the school’s principal.
In addition, a parent or legal guardian who is an offender, may drop off or pick up a child, if the individual has provided written notice of the parent or legal guardian’s offender status to the school’s principal upon the child’s enrollment and has permission from the principal to pick up or drop of the child.
This is the first incident in Lawrence County in which the Raptor System, just put in place in Lawrence County Schools last week, has been utilized. While this particular incident fortunately did not result in any inappropriate conduct on behalf of the offender, it has allowed a thorough review of both the Tennessee Code and the Lawrence County School System policies.
In the future, any sexual offender who comes upon or remains on the premises of Lawrence County School Systems’ facilities will immediately be reported to the Lawrence County Sherriff’s Department and appropriate action will be swiftly taken.
