Recently there was a city ordinance voted and approved by the Seal Beach Council regarding sex offenders not being allowed in city parks.
It’s interesting, considering that there is a state law that prompted a well-known site called http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/.
This will provide anyone seeking information about predators as well as detailed information on the importance of How to Protect Yourself and Your Family, Facts about Sex Offenders, Frequently Asked Questions, and Sex Offender Registration Requirements in California.
The problem with the ordinance is that it gives a false sense of security to young parents specifically. These parents may feel by eliminating the predator from the parks helps keep their kids safe.
Unfortunately, that thought is false. I will discuss why this is so, and introduce ideas that may help ease the fear of predators.
With this much help available to the public, it is a great justice to assist the community to not panic. Honestly, getting educated on the subject and understanding what to look for in a child predator is calming, not just informational. A predator is not just the nice man or woman in your neighborhood that no one would suspect—it’s usually someone who is hiding, hiding from the general public with their sick and demented lifestyle choice. It is most likely someone you know, not always a serial killer that we see on the news.
I have actually had some training in this area in the past couple of years since I teach a local religious class. We as faith teachers have to go through the training for purposes of satisfying state requirements as well as church requirements.
What I found in my own research after taking a child safety class was that sex offenders are individuals who engage in pornography watching. It is a known fact that pornography, especially of their victims in form of photo or film, is watched by sex offenders before the crime is confirmed and they are arrested. It is usually their subjects that are in that pornography that gets them put in jail.
Years ago when I was in elementary school and policemen used to show up to tell us not to talk to strangers, little did they know then that it wasn’t just strangers that we needed to worry about. It could very well be someone we knew who was a predator. Nowadays child safety training is in schools annually and parents are always informed before their children are taught the essentials. Most teachers I have spoken to say that teaching this is a requirement and they thoroughly support it because it can save a child from psychological trauma, or worse if they became a victim.
I see that kids today are pretty keen as to what they are being taught. My seventh-grade students are a good example of this. This year they changed their mind to the boredom of the same subject. It’s interesting how conversations come up and how they view incidences at school as nothing—until safety training is added to the mix. I taught them how to confirm if harassment was actually happening or not—this was based on questions that are provided for this session each year. I also heard everyday instances that my students brought up on their own.
Prevention of an incident is actually better than succumbing to an act, I told my students. There is a fine line to what we think may not be construed as sexual harassment. I told them of a story of a girl their age going to school for instance, not knowing that there was going to be comments made on her particular choice of dress that day. She wasn’t explicitly dressed by any means. She wore a nice fitting long skirt, something that was appropriate for school. The problem began when the boys she knew told her she looked “hot.”
The comment wasn’t particularly unusual for boys of that prepubescent age, by any means, until it started happening every single day for some time. I told the students that the girl had a choice in this case—she could either ignore the comments or do something to protect herself. In this case the girl stood up for herself and walked right up to the boys when they continued to tease her—she told them to stop.
They chose to ignore her; goading her to think she was a promiscuous girl.
She told them they should stop or she would have to take action—they continued to not listen to her.
Later, she finally went to school officials and the boys were dealt with.
The problem with a case like this is that not one of my students viewed it as a sexual harassment case until I made them understand why it was.
The girls appreciated it because they have seen boys tease girls, and girls usually ignore them. Both the boys and girls learned what a compliment was, versus what can be considered harassment.
One of the things I find so fascinating about child safety is that if begins early in schools and is supported in the home, it can prevent harassment for years afterwards.
If we teach health to kids and hygiene, can you imagine what could be learned if safety training was added to that mix?
We could gear to a society where harassment was just a term, not something we need to shy away from.
In the end, the city of Seal Beach ordinance against sex offenders is absolutely not the only solution to get rid of predators.
In reality, predators live right here in Seal Beach and it’s up to the people to protect themselves with knowledge.
This isn’t to justify any registered sex offender’s behavior, but to bring awareness to those that don’t understand what this type of behavior is truly about. If there’s action that people should take, it’s to not panic.
This is about empowerment of the people through education, so that they don’t unnecessarily fear predators and to show their own children the same techniques that have been proven by professionals that help victims every day.
Enea Ostrich is a resident of College Park East in Seal Beach.
