How I became a sex offender for 90 minutes!
Yesterday, my wife, Erin, and I visited East High School in Wichita to attend an IEP/504 plan meeting for my daughter, Alya. Upon signing in, you have to show your driver’s license, which they scan, and I’m sure they keep it on record, although we never consented; if they do, whatever, we have nothing to hide.
When the person at the front desk scanned my driver’s license, she told us, “You have to be escorted through the building.” It took me a few moments to understand what she said, and I responded with, “I, specifically, have to be escorted?”. She said that I had come up on a “list,” which means a sex offender register, and I thought, what the actual fuck? I think I’d remember being convicted of a sex crime!
Of course, Erin and I disputed this allegation, and the front desk person gave me a person to call. But, in the meantime, we had a meeting to attend, so I accepted being escorted through the building. We have our meeting, and Alya is doing reasonably well in her Freshman year of high school. Flippantly, I said to the people in the meeting, do I have to be escorted out, and what they said shocked me. I was told, “It’s after school hours, so I don’t need to be escorted.” this made zero sense; as we walked out, we passed several dozen students; if I were a sex offender, I would be free to do as I wish, apparently.
Side thought: maybe all school visitors should be escorted through the building, not all sex offenders have been caught and convicted. Everyone is a law-abiding citizen until they are not, as we often hear after every school shooting when questions are asked about how the person got the gun…
But, I digress, I got home and called the number provided, which was for USD259 Safety and Environmental Services, and I spoke to a lady there, and she apologized to me, as it was a mix-up. There happened to be another person on the ‘list” with the same birthdate and name as me, and that’s all the information they use to flag a match. According to the lady, it was a training issue, there were further steps the front desk person had to take to confirm that the match was correct, which were not taken.
It was a shock to hear that I was on a sex offenders ‘list”, but I understand they have to take precautions, and I support this as I have a 15-year-old daughter who attends Wichita Schools. I feel that USD259 needs to better train its staff; this could have been a bad situation; not everyone would have been so passive when being perceived as a sex offender in a public place where anyone could overhear.