Well, it appears that another registered sex offender has been dumped into East County. This time in Lakeside and he is living within one-tenth of a mile from Lakeview Elementary School. He was supposedly released on Saturday, after being in jail again for violating his parole.
Now on parole again, he is required to stay 250 feet from where children gather, has a designated path to enter and leave his home and has to wear a GPS monitor during parole.
Well, it appears that another registered sex offender has been dumped into East County. This time in Lakeside and he is living within one-tenth of a mile from Lakeview Elementary School. He was supposedly released on Saturday, after being in jail again for violating his parole.
Now on parole again, he is required to stay 250 feet from where children gather, has a designated path to enter and leave his home and has to wear a GPS monitor during parole.
In researching this, I also found out that there are currently 59 registered sex offenders living in Lakeside as of Nov. 4. City-data.com is a great site for finding where sex offenders in your area are living. It is disturbing to say the least, but it is becoming more and more evident that East County is prime real estate for registered sex offenders, and it does not seem like it is going to change any time soon. We are consistently fighting this problem.
Residents of Lakeside protested against this move last week, but to no avail. Lee Austin, registered for committing lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14, is now living within a rock’s throw of one elementary school and close to several others. Even his brother-in-law spoke out against his move there. Noted, he is not a sexually violent predator, but it makes no difference. We need to find a way to keep these offenders away from our children.
Part of the problem is our overwhelmed prison system, and that is a problem that is not going away soon. But it is sad to see so many people spending years in jail for lesser crimes and we get stuck with the lewd and lascivious.
So for now, it is up to us to make sure that our children stay safe and that is not an easy task these days. We deal with drugs, alcohol, gangs and a plethora of things that can get our children into trouble, but now we also have to worry about our own neighbors. And so many of these sex offenders go completely unnoticed.
Take the time to look up who is in your neighborhood. You will not get a complete arrest report or court documents, but it will give you a good glance at who is living in your vicinity that could be a threat to your children.
I would say change schools, but it really does not help the matter as they are scattered through Lakeside, and no matter what school your child goes to, it more than likely has a sex offender close by.
It is sad that we have to educate our children on how to keep safe from sexual predators, even before they comprehend what it is. For the very young, it is just best to teach them the dangers of strangers. I know in our family, we teach them at an early age that if they feel threatened to kick, bite, scratch, scream and do anything they can to be able to run to safety.
But, it does not mean to stop fighting. Contact your elected officials and let them know the outrage you feel about having these offenders so close to our children. There are many out there that support us in this arena, but it is the numbers that can make a difference. And the only way to become part of that number is to officially protest by writing your complaints so that they have the numbers to show that their constituents will no longer tolerate these decisions being made without our consent and in our own neighborhoods.
