Swan files bill to bar sex offenders from children's museums, zoos

An incident in which a sex offender visited Cape Girardeau’s Discovery Playhouse children’s museum prompted state Rep. Kathy Swan to file legislation to bar sex offenders from that museum and others.

Registered sex offenders would be prohibited from being within 500 feet of any museum, zoo or “other location with the primary purpose of entertaining or educating children” younger than 18 years of age under legislation introduced by Swan.

The Cape Girardeau Republican’s bill would expand restrictions in existing state law that bars any convicted sex offender from entering or being within 500 feet of any public park that has playground equipment or a swimming pool, or within 1,000 feet of a school or child-care facility.

Violators could face prison sentences.

Swan said she also wants to bar sex offenders from hanging out near children’s sections of public libraries and children’s play areas in shopping malls.

Swan said the incident at Discovery Playhouse was reported to her by Cape Girardeau lawyer Isaac Venable.

He is listed on the Discovery Playhouse website as president of the museum’s board of directors.

In a letter to Swan, Venable wrote children’s museums are not “protected locations” under state law.

Venable said that became apparent when a “known, registered sexual offender came to the Discovery Playhouse unattended. Museum employees called the Cape Girardeau Police Department as the offender “roamed the facility,” he wrote.

But police could not remove the person because “children’s museums are not protected” under state law, Venable said.

“We felt confused and vulnerable,” he wrote.

“The safety of children visiting our facility is our greatest priority. A child can’t learn and explore the exhibits we provide if they are scared and/or in danger,” Venable said in backing the legislation.

Cape Girardeau County has more than 170 registered sex offenders, according to online records maintained by the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Convicted sex offenders must register with the sheriff’s office in the county where they live.

The crime-prevention and public-safety committee in the Missouri House conducted a public hearing on Swan’s bill earlier this month.

Vicki Henry, president of Women Against Registry, testified against the measure.

“There is no empirical evidence to show a need for any type of ban like that,” said Henry, who lives in Arnold, Missouri.

Henry said such legislation is “based on public fear.”

She added, “Legislators react to this fear.”

Most registered sex offenders are first-time offenders.

“The majority don’t re-offend,” she said.

Legislative bans such as the one proposed by Swan only make it harder for offenders to “successfully integrate” back into society, Henry said.

At least 30 states and hundreds of cities have implemented some form of residence restrictions for sex offenders, according to the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA).

Henry said ATSA has found no evidence residential proximity to schools, playgrounds, parks and recreation centers increases sexual re-offending.

A federal appeals court last year struck down a series of restrictions imposed on convicted sex offenders by Michigan’s legislature, Henry said.

The court held Michigan was illegally treating many sex offenders as “moral lepers” by putting additional restrictions on them long after their convictions.

But Swan suggested Missouri lawmakers would back her bill.

“I think it should not be an issue,” she said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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