WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT: The man was seen pointing his phone camera in the direction of students aged between five and eleven on a dance floor at an Elementary School in Kansas – leaving parents horrified
Horrified parents in Kansas have voiced their outrage after a registered sex offender was allowed to film their children at a school dance.
The unidentified man was captured pointing his phone camera in the direction of students aged between five and eleven as they took to the dance floor at Blue River Elementary School on February 8. Parents told the Johnson County Post they had recognised him as an offender who pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography in 2011.
The discovery sparked major concern moments after the dance kicked off, with parents congregating in a seperate room to discuss how they should address the issue without distressing the children. The group decided to report the man to Principal Melissa Blevins, who took him aside. He then left shortly after.
Shockingly, Blevins revealed that the man, who is believed to live with a woman who has children, was given the all-clear to attend the school function, Fox 4 reports. Outraged parents hit back, arguing the convict shouldn’t have been allowed anywhere near the children. “When you go read about what he was charged with, then I’m no so fond of him taking videos”, said father Colter Daubert.
The man was indicted in 2010 after he was caught circulating sexually explicit images of children on LimeWire, the Johnson County Post reports. He pleaded guilty to the offence the following year and was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison, plus an additional seven years of supervision upon release.
But he will stay on the sex offender register for another 17 years because he was also found to be in possession of hundreds of photos and videos of naked girls between the ages of one and 14. This included a photo of a child aged between six and eight being sexually assaulted, Fox 4 reports.
Natasha Goellner, a mother of a girl who attends the school, said in a social media post that her daughter was on the dance floor when the offender started filming. She said: “Does he have footage of her? Probably. But we’ll never know, will we?”
The mum told Fox 4 that the Blue Valley School District usually always promotes safety and security, adding: “[The school district] should know better! It’s a school district. They have policies for everything. But they really didn’t have a policy in place for sex offenders.
Goellner, along with at least nine other parents, expressed her concerns to district officials in an email. They received a reply from Superintendent Tonya Merrigan, who said district policy allows registered sex offenders with family members in the district to come to school events and be monitored during them.
She explained: “This process is designed to uphold the safety and well-being of all students, while allowing the student to have their parent or guardian in attendance at the activity” adding the requests are “rare” and “carefully reviewed”.
“That said, I have requested an immediate review of this administrative guidelines with direction to provide additional clarity around the specific steps required when considering a special request”, she added. The policy is now being reviewed by the Board of Education.
“We remain dedicated to maintaining a safe and supportive school environment”, a district spokesperson told Fox 4. “This policy update will reflect our ongoing commitment to student safety.”