Plan targets sex offenders Would let BSO notify principals about molesters

Plan gives notice about presence of sex offenders

According to the plan, the school district's special investigative unit will be notified by the Broward Sheriff's Office whenever a sex offender moves to Broward. That information eventually will make its way to the area superintendents, who then will inform schools principals.

``This is a responsible proactive approach,'' said Broward School Board Chairwoman Lois Wexler, who requested the plan from the legal department. ``This is our way of using the schools as a vehicle for giving out information.''

Despite its step-by-step process for alerting all the necessary parties, the plan does fall short when it comes to alerting parents about what's going on, critics say. That responsibility, according to the the plan's loose wording, rests with school's principals.

``We have dumped it in the laps of the principals without taking it to the next step,'' said Wexler, who hopes to form a committee over the summer to look at ways to provide for what the guidelines neglect to do. ``They've gone 90 percent of the way.''

Wexler asked for the guidelines two months ago after being contacted by Plantation parent Wendy Schlosser. The Tropical Elementary School PTA president and other Plantation Golf Estates parents became terrified for their children after learning that convicted child molester Clifton Lloyd Crossman had moved in with his parents on East Tropical Way. The Crossman house is near Tropical Elementary and Seminole Middle School.

The Plantation incident was the second in two months. The first was in January, when Pompano Beach-area residents protested the move of convicted child molester Ronald F. Johnson, who lives near Cresthaven Elementary School.

While grateful that school officials have decided to come up with a procedure for principals to follow, Schlosser said she would like to see it go further. For instance, she's still pushing to have the plan's wording allow for principals to send fliers home.

``I am not asking for fliers to be sent home with the person's name, face and address on it,'' Schlosser said. ``But what I would like to see is a very generic flier to go home with the students informing parents that a person has come back into the area and this is what you can do to reinforce safety lessons with your kids.''

For now, the plan, which is not a policy, relies heavily on the use of Florida's Sexual Predators Act. As of Oct. 1, 1995, the law began requiring convicted sex offenders to register with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement within 48 hours after entering a county for permanent or temporary residence. Before now, the information was never provided to schools.

Once BSO notifies the district's Special Investigative Unit about a registered sex offender, the unit chief will determine the nearest school and notify the deputy superintendent of school operations. That person will then provide the information to several other individuals including the area superintendents. School principals will be notified by their area superintendent.

Tropical Elementary's Mary Ellen Van Pelt said she's happy to finally have something that she and other principals can rely on.

``As educators we know that the best way to provide for the safety of our children is to provide specific information that can be reinforced at home and at school,'' Van Pelt said. ``This allows for that.''