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January 17, 2006
Sex Offenders
This whole row over List 99 and certain so-called ‘sex offenders’ being released to work in schools, is disturbing me somewhat and probably for different reasons than most parents.
As a human being with a certain degree of rationality I am concerned that there can be a ‘one size fits all’ melting pot into which anyone who has ever had any connection with the vague term ‘sexual offence’ is bundled (even if they weren’t convicted) and nobody seems sure if they are or are not clear to work in schools. And then when they do get a job with children, their face is splattered all over the paper alongside such accusations as ‘child abuser’ and ‘paedophile,’ thus leaving their identity open so that tabloid readers can do their dirty work. If either man concerned remains out of hospital for the entire week, I will be surprised.
Don’t get me wrong, I am aware that where children are concerned we cannot be too careful but I also feel strongly that we need to stop for a moment, take some deep breaths and curb the hysteria.
Firstly we need to remind ourselves that the register would indeed contain someone who abducted a 6 year old from the bath in her own home and rightly so, but alongside would exist someone who had a relationship with a 15 year old, 25 years ago; or someone who owned a computer that he just happened to share with others, on which child pornography had been viewed.
Far be it for me to comment on individual cases for I don’t know all the facts and this is precisely my point. We need to take a step back and assess the scope of the issue before we start waving our fingers about, assuming that we are only days away from another Soham.
Which leads me onto my second point, the widely known fact that most acts of sexual abuse (involving children or adults) are completed by someone the victim knows, usually a family member or friend. Could it be then that we are using this whole furore about teaching as a scapegoat for the fact that perhaps we should be more cautious when a little closer to home? It is, after all a lot more comfortable to get our knickers in a twist about the fact that Little Johnny’s teacher might have once fallen in love with someone a year too soon, than it is to question whether we should be sending him to Uncle Harry’s for tea.
We must not forget after all, that Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman knocked on Ian Huntley’s door, NOT because he was the caretaker at their school but because his partner was their teacher. Quick then, perhaps we have a whole new group for the sex offenders register; ‘Those who have ever had a relationship with anyone on the List,’ which would turn the whole thing into a logistical snowball.
There would be no teachers left and then we would have to keep our kids at home which statistically, as we have already established, is altogether more dangerous.
Posted by purple elephant at January 17, 2006 11:24 AM