Campbell County School Board members voted Monday to adopt changes to the school’s policy on parents who are sex offenders.
Under the new, more explicit guidelines, parents who are registered sex offenders of any kind may not come to the school or to a school function without advance written approval from the principal. Schools will be required to monitor these parents while at school to make sure they do not come into contact with any children other than their own.
The changes replace language that stated generally that parents who are nonviolent sex offenders could be present at the schools with appropriate supervision and referred to a separate policy for violent sex offenders.
The board approved the policy change unanimously.
Vice Chairman Roger Akers of the Rustburg District said that he voted for the change on the advice of the school board attorney.
“What you hope is that it is an issue that doesn’t come up,” Akers said, though he said that he recalled an incident several years ago when the principal of the old Rustburg elementary school caught a sex offender attempting to come into the school posing as a child’s grandparent.
School board member Barry Jones of the Concord District, who also voted for the measure, said that his only question was who would do the monitoring of parents who are sex offenders on school grounds. He said that he was told that the school principals would be in charge of monitoring.
“It’s going to put more burden on the principals,” Jones said. “We’ve got to face the fact that that’s life.”
In other business, the board voted to replace meetings on Dec. 21, Jan. 4, and Jan. 18 with a single meeting on Monday, Jan. 11. Superintendent Robert Johnson said that he planned to begin budget discussions with the school board members at that time.
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