You’d think that if a pedophile convicted of 1st degree sexual assault of a child was released in your neighborhood the authorities would notify you.

You’d think that if that same pedophile was let out on parole, violated parole, was sent to jail and then re-released into the neighborhood the authorities would notify you.

You’d think that your state’s sex offender registry site would list the convicted sex offender’s race properly.

You’d think that if a school bus company was told that their bus stop was three houses down from the documented residence of a convicted pedophile that they would jump out of their skins in an effort to move it.

You’d think that if you told the school bus company about the location of the bus stop and the location of the pedophile that they’d permanently change the location of the bus stop, not just change it for your children only (still allowing other children to use the compromised stop) and not just change it for that year only.

You’d think that if every year the bus company put the stop in the same place, three houses down from the convicted child sex offender, and every year you called the bus company to move the stop, that they’d get the idea and permanently move it.

What do all of these things have in common (besides common sense)?  These things detail what’s been going on in my neighborhood for the past three years.

It all started a few years ago when I found out about Wisconsin’s sex offender registry site (before the new sex offender location sites such as mapsexoffenders.com).  I typed in my zip code and the registry spit back the names and crimes of sex offenders living in the same zip code.  At the time the registry did not give out addresses – apparently the privacy of the convicted sex offender was more important than the safety of the community.

But, like many people, I discovered that the Wisconsin Circuit Court had an online case search; by typing the name of the sex offender listed on the registry I was able to pull up every case brought against that individual.  Looking into each case one by one I was able to pull up the address of the offender at the time of the case.  However, there were many addresses for the sex offender including a PO box in a neighboring zip code – I couldn’t be sure if he still lived in the house down the street or not.

I then used the state’s property database to search the address down the street and found that the house had been sold to a family member of the sex offender shortly after his conviction.

Armed with this information I called Wisconsin’s sex offender monitoring program and asked about the offender – I simply wanted to confirm his current location but the lovely lady I spoke with rudely told me that she would never give out address information.

Being the resourceful and persistent person that I am I then called Wisconsin’s Department of Corrections and was eventually put in contact with the sex offender’s parole officer who told me that yes, the offender lived in the neighboring city but that his family lived down the street and he often spent time at the family’s house.

All of this – dozens of hours of web searching and phone calls – just to find out if my kids were in danger.  But it’s okay – at least those poor sex offenders wouldn’t have their privacy violated by providing their location information to the community.

I spent the next few weeks keeping an eye out for the sex offender and much to my horror I saw his vehicle at the house, literally three doors down from the local school bus stop, during morning pick-up and afternoon drop-off on many different occasions.

The next phone call I made was to the school bus company; I asked them to move the stop one block up (where the bus has to stop for a stop sign anyway).  They didn’t want to move the stop at first but I persisted and it was eventually moved.

The next year brought similar results.  The bus stop was put three doors down from the sex offender, I called the bus company and the bus stop was moved again.

This current year I found out that the sex offender had violated his parole, was sent back to prison and was later released.  He was now officially living at the house down the block. 

And, wouldn’t you know it, the bus company put the bus stop at the same place, three doors down from the sex offender’s house.

This year I absolutely lost it.  I called up the bus company and spoke with the same lady I’ve spoken with for the past three years and asked her to move the bus stop because a convicted child molester lived three houses down from the stop.  Her reply stunned me – “Well,” she said, “we’ve talked to the administration and we have sex offenders living by the schools.”

It took me a moment to digest her statement.  It seems that, since other sex offenders live by the schools, it is okay to put a bus stop right next to a convicted child molester’s house. 

I immediately told the school bus manager that that type of thinking and rationalizing was completely unacceptable.  Knowingly parading young kids in front of someone convicted of molesting young kids borders on negligence.  I politely explained that the bus company would move the stop, period.

As if to try to anger me or "get" me, she replied that she could move the stop for my children but that the rest of the kids would still be picked up and dropped off at the previous location.  According to her, in order to move the stop for all children, every parent would have to call the bus company.

So, we canvassed the neighborhood passing out fliers detailing the sex offender’s crime, his location and the bus stop location and encouraged parents to call.  The scary thing was that many parents had no idea that a convicted child molester lived in the neighborhood.

Had I not done my homework, spending hours of my time tracking the sex offenders in my neighborhood, our children would be parading in front of this deviant piece of crap twice a day Monday through Friday.

The biggest question I have (aside from 'why won't the bus company move the stop once and for all') is this – why were we not notified that he was moving back into our neighborhood?  He was convicted of 1st degree sexual assault of a child, was paroled, broke his parole, and then eventually was released again just down the block.

By my reckoning, a convicted felon that violates parole either a) doesn’t have the ability to keep himself out of trouble or b) doesn’t really care.  In either case there is a clear danger that he will re-offend.

Apparently the Department of Corrections is more concerned about giving convicted child molester’s peace by not informing their neighbors that they are living on the streets where the children play.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is just the first chapter in this saga.  I will be following up with the bus company to find out why the stop has not been permanently moved as well as following up with the Department of Corrections to find out why the community was not notified.  Look for the upcoming columns on my progress over the next month.