A school bus stop in Mooresville, North Carolina, has been moved after a local news station uncovered that a registered sex offender lived only five feet from both a middle school and high school bus stop. The news report alarmed parents enough that they contacted the local school district to request changing the bus stop location further away from the sex offender.
The man, who had been convicted of a sex offense, indecent liberties with a 4-year-old, earlier in August, had just moved onto Regency Road in Mooresvile to live with his brother.
Sex offenders are required to register with the sex offender registry. Part of the requirements of the registry includes listing an address. Anytime the sex offender moves, he or she is required to submit a new address. The goal of the address component of the sex offender registry is to inform others who live near the sex offender to the possibility of danger. People who are convicted of a sex offense have a high rate of recidivism in the U.S.
There are circumstances, however, where a community may take the protection too far and infringe on the rights of the sex offender. Harming or threatening a sex offender who lives in a North Carolina community is illegal.
Source: WSOC TV “School Moves Bus Stop After Noticing Sex Offender Lives Nearby,” 8/26/2011