Is The State Condemning Our Kids?
Feb. 8

It's a story we first brought you months ago, children being labeled sex offenders. KAKE News asking, is the state condemning our kids?

Last year we talked to a mother and a son, the teenager is a registered sex offender. His mom asked lawmakers to change the law to give her son a shot at a normal life. So far she's not receiving a whole lot of hlep, but she is hopeful.

It's a big year to crack down on sex offenders. Several bills are making their way through the statehouse to require sex offenders to do more to notify people of their whereabouts and spend more time behind bars.

But are lawmakers going too far? Back in November, we searched the state's sex offender website and found dozens of children, their faces, crimes and addresses plastered on the Internet for all the world to see.

Now it seems their lives may get harder as lawmakers consider tougher penalities or requirements for sex offenders. In some cases that includes children as young as ten.

"In reality a lot of those cases are not of the level of a psychotic predator, sexual predator that sort of thing, more misbehavior," said WSU criminology professor Brian Withrow.

Among the many faces, you will find "Kevin." We've agreed to protect his identity and his mother's. Several years ago, Kevin's mom walked in on him performing a sex act on another child who was under the age of ten. His mother was concerned and took him to a therapist.

"Next thing I know, I have my son registered as a sex offender, because I took him in for counseling," said his mother "Jane."

Kansas law requires therapists to report children involved in sexual situations no matter how innocent they seem. And if the therapists don't they could lose their license.

If the child is over the age of ten, he or she can be prosecuted and then adjudicated. Esentially found guilty of a sex crime. "Kevin" is now listed as a sex offender. If the other child involved would have been over the age of ten, her face could have ended up on the website too.

Withrow says not all sex offenders are alike and children should not be grouped with dangerous predators.

"We really need to take time to look at them more before we make decisions at the policy level on how to respond to them," said Withrow.

And that is just what the American Psychology Association is urging lawmakers to do. On their website it asks people to contact their representatives and tell them that childhood sexual offending is different from adult sexual in its motivation, extent and response to intervention.

Research consistently shows that the majority of children and teenagers adjudicated for sex crimes do not become adult sex offenders.

Current bills being considered by the house judiciary committee call for repeat sex offenders to receive life sentences. The measure pertains to adults, but a judge has the discretion to certify a child as an adult.

"This is the new scarlet letter, and I don't think we want to be branding kids with it," said Defense Attorney Roger Falk.

Although no current bills would take children off the sex offender website, the mom we talked to is working on a daily basis to get lawmakers to make a change.

Now, two different bills that would make sex offender requirements tougher are up for committee discussion next Tuesday.