School officials and local law enforcement agencies are unsure of how to deal with the logistics of a bill that recently passed in the U.S. House of Representatives. The legislation, would require colleges and universities to make known on their campuses the identities of students and employees who are “registered sex offenders.”
The House on June 12 unanimously passed the bill, , but it has not yet been reviewed by the Senate. The bill is expected to pass easily in the Senate.
The measure, , was prompted by an incident that occurred last summer involving an Arizona State University student. Fifty-five year-old Arun Sharma was a convicted sex offender enrolled in the school and he was later arrested for assaulting six women in a movie theater. University officials were, at that time, unable to release criminal history on the student because it violated federal law which prohibits schools from distributing any information about a student beyond what is available in the directories.
The bill would lump all sex offenders into one information source, putting high risk offenders in the same category with offenders who are less of a risk.
“An incest offender is not really at risk outside of the home or on a college campus, but a predatory offender would be a very high risk on a campus,” said Cindy Mazikowski, a Lane County parole and probation officer.
If the bill does pass, University officials and authorities do not yet know how the sex offender status would be disseminated throughout the campus.
“Not much talk has gone on about how the information would be ‘known’ on campus,” said Bob Bruce, assistant to the vice chancellor for communication for the Oregon University System. “If passed, institutions would have to decide how to deal with it under the Cleary Act, formerly known as the Campus Security Act of 1990.”
How the issue would be dealt with on the University campus is also currently under inquiry.
“We would need to meet with local law enforcement to try to figure out what we would need to do to be in compliance with the law and suit the University environment. We would also need to meet with the Office of Student Life and ASUO Legal Services,” said Joan Saylor, admissions lieutenant from the Office of Public Safety.
The effects the bill would have on the University are, at this point, still unknown.
“It is a little muddy; it is not really clear yet the impact that this will have on campus,” Saylor said. “It is a double-edged sword. We need to be aware of people who could cause potential risks, but at the same time people have a right to attend the University without harassment [and] who have paid their debt to society.”
Victims’ rights groups said the legislation will help prevent sex crimes on college campuses.
“It will help provide opportunities for students and parents to know if someone poses a risk to their safety,” Laura Ahearn, executive director of the New York-based Parents for Megan’s Law, recently told MSNBC.
While many say they think that this new legislation will have a positive effect on decreasing the numbers of sex crimes on campuses, some authorities see the issue from a different perspective.
“I don’t think the public truly has an idea of how many sex offenders are out in the public,” said Mazikowski.