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Archives > Volume 8 Issue 19 - March 12, 2010 "Chelsea's Law" could track sex offenders via GPS...Known sex offenders should be outfitted with GPS devices that would track their movements and immediately alert police if predators travelled to restricted areas near schools or parks, a California lawmaker told ABC News. ABC News story here 
Following the alleged rape and murder of 17-year-old high school student Chelsea King by convicted sex offender John Albert Gardner III, Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, R- San Diego, called for a complete review of California laws intended to monitor known offenders.
Fletcher said California law requires sex offenders to register where they live, but not where they go. Police in the nearby towns of Escondido and Rancho Bernardo are working to determine if in Gardner's routine travels between his residence and his mother's home he attempted to abduct girls along the way. "I'm really concerned where these sex predators go because where you live is one thing, but where you go is another matter. If you're a certain category of sex offender you can't go where kids congregate. You can't go to parks, you can't go to bus stops, you can go to schools," Fletcher said. "We're looking at the possibility of using technology. Using a GPS device that's a passive device, but the minute you cross into one of these safe zones it immediately pings a 911 call and you've committed a crime by violating it," he said. Gardner, who served five years in prison after admitting to molesting a 13-yeard-old girl in 2000, was arrested March 1 after his DNA was found on clothes belonging to King found in the area where she vanished. In the days following his arrest and arraignment, police have since linked him to one other attack in the same park and believe he may be connected to the death of Amber DuBois, 14, who disappeared in February 2009 and whose skeletal remains were discover over this past weekend. For more on this story, see vol8_iss16, vol8_iss17, and vol8_iss18. On Tuesday it was revealed that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation last year destroyed records pertaining to Gardner's 2005 to 2008 parole as part of a routine annual documents dump. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday ordered California corrections officials to keep sex offenders' parole records indefinitely after he learned the files of a man now charged with killing a 17-year-old girl had been destroyed. CBS News story here Gardner violated his parole by moving too close to a school but was allowed to remain free, according to records obtained Thursday by The Associated Press. Fox News story here Had John Albert Gardner III been returned to prison in 2007 he would have been evaluated for commitment to a state mental hospital as a sexually violent predator. He also would have qualified for wearing an electronic tracking device for the rest of his life In addition, it would have permitted Gardner's evaluation as a sexually violent predator, potentially keeping him locked up in a state mental health hospital for years. (Editor's Note: If you really want to keep kids safe, violent sex offenders need to stay in prison.) Germans to examine what Pope knew of abuse... Church abuse scandals in Germany have reached the older brother of Pope Benedict XVI and are creeping ever closer to the pontiff himself. CBS News story here 
While there has been no suggestion of wrongdoing by Benedict, the launch of an inquiry by German Catholic officials after his brother admitted he slapped children years ago is stirring Vatican fears of a major crisis for the papacy.
Benedict, 82, was archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982 when he was brought to the Vatican to head the body responsible for investigating abuse cases. During that time, he came under criticism for decreeing that even the most serious abuse cases must first be investigated internally. Since then, Benedict has taken a strong stand against abuse by clerics in the Roman Catholic Church. Just weeks before he became pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger caused a stir when he denounced "filth" in the church and among priests - a condemnation taken as a reference to clerical sex abuse. German church officials said Wednesday they will examine what - if anything - Benedict knew about abuse during his time as Munich archbishop. "We do not know if the pope knew about the abuse cases at the time," church spokesman Karl Juesten told The Associated Press. He said the church "assumes" Benedict knew nothing of such cases, but that current Munich Archbishop Reinhard Marx will be "certainly investigating these questions." In addition, the German Bishop's Conference said it would look into wider-ranging allegations across the country after more than 170 students at Catholic schools have said they were sexually or physically abused decades ago. MSNBC story here In reaction to the spiraling child abuse scandal, the German government said it would impose stricter rules on educators. Families Minister Kristina Schroeder told the Wiesbadener Kurier daily Wednesday that local authorities will be allowed to ask for a thorough police check on all applicants who are going to work with kids. Last week a Benedictine abbey in Ettal in Bavaria was raided by police after more than a dozen former pupils alleged they had been abused at the institution. The abbey has since hired Thomas Pfister, a special investigator who presented an interim report that laid out widespread beating and sexual abuse. CNN story here 
"Children that were enrolled in the abbey were massively abused for decades sexually, physically as well as psychologically," Pfister said at a press conference, in which he added that one of the priests had posted pictures of half-naked pupils on a gay Web site.
Meanwhile, Dutch Catholic bishops have ordered an independent inquiry into alleged sexual abuse of children by priests. BBC story here The investigation would be launched "as soon as possible" into more than 200 reported cases of abuse, they said. Earlier, the Vatican defended its response to child sex abuse allegations in a number of European states, saying it had reacted rapidly and decisively. In the latest revelations, the head of an Austrian monastery confessed to abusing a boy more than 40 years ago. See eGuide/clergy abuse for m ore information on this problem. "Huffing" more popular among 12-year-olds than street drugs... It's important to warn children about the dangers of drugs like marijuana and cocaine, but what parents really need to worry about, researchers say, is their kids "huffing" common household products such as shoe polish, glue and air fresheners. Fox News story here 
In fact, more 12-year-olds have used potentially lethal inhalants to get high than marijuana, cocaine and hallucinogens combined, according to data released Thursday by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in conjunction with the 18th annual National Inhalants & Poisons Awareness Week.
"We continue to face the challenge of increasing experimentation and intentional misuse of common household products among the youngest and most vulnerable segments of our population - 12 year olds," Harvey Weiss, executive director of The National Inhalant Prevention Coalition, said in a news release. The frightening thing about "huffing" is that most parents are not aware that the use of inhalants can cause "sudden sniffing death," which is immediate death due to cardiac arrest. Kevin Talley, the father of Amber Ann Suri, learned that lesson much too late: Amber died in February 2009 after huffing. Although she was taken to a doctor, she was only treated for sinus problems and died a short time later. "As a physician, I cannot stress enough the importance of educating adolescents about the dangers of the inhalation of volatile substances," said Dr. Jennifer N. Caudle, an osteopathic family physician and director of the family medicine section of the Department of Internal Medicine at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. "Young people do not always realize the consequences of their actions. It is possible to die from trying inhalants even once. 'Sudden sniffing death' causes the heart to beat rapidly, which can result in cardiac arrest." SAMHSA data from the 2006-2008 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health show a rate of lifetime inhalant use among 12 year olds of 6.9 percent, compared to a rate of 5.1 percent for nonmedical use of prescription type drugs; a rate of 1.4 percent for marijuana; a rate of 0.7 percent for use of hallucinogens; and a 0.1 rate for cocaine use. Click here for more information from the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition. 2008 National Survey on Drug Use & Health In other news... 
A letter carrier who is a registered sex offender has been reassigned after concerns were raised that he was delivering mail in a San Diego suburb with many children, a Postal Service spokeswoman said. AP story here Dana Kennette, 53, is now in a job that does not deal with the public, service spokeswoman Eva Jackson said. "We've taken him off his route," she said. Kennette had been delivering mail in the Rancho Bernardo area of San Diego, where he lives. According to the Megan's Law Web site, he was convicted of lewd or lascivious acts on a child under 14. The circumstances, location and date of the offense were not listed. A request for background on the case was pending with the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Kennette has been a Postal Service employee since August 1983, Jackson said. Concern is high in the area after a sex offender was charged with murdering 17-year-old Chelsea King, of Poway, whose body was found in Rancho Bernardo this month. Police also are investigating the death of Amber Dubois, 14, of nearby Escondido, whose remains were found last weekend, more than a year after she vanished. U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, whose district includes the area, sent a letter to Postmaster General John E. Potter demanding to know how the service concluded Kennette was not a threat to the community.
Amy Beck may have cleared her conscience, but now faces serious jail time after freely admitting a months long affair with one of her middle school students. ABC News story here The Burbank, California teacher stunned police and school officials when she showed up at the police station and told them she'd repeatedly had sex with a now-15-year-old student. "Obviously we were surprised," Burbank Police Sergeant Robert Quesada said. Without Beck's confession, "we would have never known about this." Detectives confirmed her story with the student and arrested her on four counts of sexual intercourse with a minor and one count of oral copulation with a minor. "It seemed she was just feeling guilty and was overwhelmed with this guilt and had to get it off her chest," Quesada said. See eGuide/educator abuse for more information on abusive teachers.
Eleven adopted and foster children forced to sleep in cages by their adoptive parents have reached a $1.2 million settlement with the Ohio county where they once lived. AP story here Lawyers for the children contended that Huron County children's services workers should have discovered what was before they did and removed the children. "There were red flags that should have had the county in their (sic) sooner," said attorney Jack Landskroner. Instead of filing a lawsuit, attorneys for the children negotiated with the county on the settlement, announced Wednesday. The children suffered from problems such as fetal alcohol syndrome and ranged in age from 1 to 14 when authorities removed them from their Norwalk home in 2005. Their adoptive parents, Michael and Sharen Gravelle, are serving two-year prison terms for abusing some of the children. A trustee who will oversee the settlement will determine how much money each child will receive while courts will help determine when they receive the money. See vol3_iss52 and vol3_iss54.
Millions of images have been seized and 35 people arrested in an Ontario province-wide crackdown of child pornography. Toronto Star story here Police say one suspect alone had 6 million child porn images stored on computers and hard drives. The arrests announced Wednesday came earlier this week in a huge sweep by 18 police forces across Ontario coordinated by the OPP's Provincial Strategy to Protect Children from Sexual Abuse and Exploitation on the Internet. More arrests are expected. "This is a crime that, to me, is one of the most heinous that one human being can commit against another," OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino told reporters at a hotel near Pearson airport. "The most fundamental responsibility of any society is to protect its children. Every child has a right to be nurtured and a right to be safe and most assuredly, protected from abuse." Fantino said that while police can lay charges against "low-life" child pornographers, it's up to the justice system to punish those convicted more severely.
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