We Need A Sex Offender Registry

| Monday July 10, 2017 11:19

Cases of pedophiles tracking young children and ensuring that they get jobs at places where they have access to them (young children) seem to be increasing. Just in the past weeks there has been two cases already of adult male who obviously sought jobs in areas where they know they will have access to children, in order to feed their sick, and disgusting habits. With this kind knowledge, schools and other institutions, which deal with children, should be extra careful when hiring teachers.

It is common knowledge that most local companies when hiring don’t really do background checks on their prospective employees, but the incident which happened recently at Hillcrest International School, should be a lesson to all schools and the business community at large. Schools should be extra vigilant with background checks of their prospective employees. 

What is more disgusting is the reaction of the school after the incident, where a male teacher allegedly fondled a standard five pupil, came out. According to information before us, the school seems to be more concerned about its reputation rather than the safety of the child. The speed and manner at which the school acted is disappointing to say the least.

The school allegedly found out about the horrific incident on June 27, 2017, but only decided to issue letters to parents on July 5, in which they clearly stated that the said teacher has been suspended pending disciplinary hearing. Information reaching The Monitor is that at the time of the letter being circulated, the teacher had only been verbally suspended. It is also alleged that the victim’s mother, not the school, which in a way shows that the school, is indeed prioritising its image, ahead of the children’s welfare, reported the matter to the police.  

In another case, another man appeared before Broadhurst Magistrate Court recently in connection with defiling 13-year-old girl.  The accused apparently is the young girl’s coach at Mogoditshane Fighters Women’s Football team.  These are just two of the many cases that occur regularly in our country and we need to stand up and address the issue before it’s a little bit too late.

A sex offender registry will go a long way in protecting our children. These will make it easy for schools and other organisations, which deal with children to be able to conduct background checks on prospective employees. The registry will also assist parent to do their own research on sex offenders. In developed countries, the registry, which contains addresses of sex offenders, is accessible on the Internet, which makes it easy for parents to do a search, and come up with ways of keeping the children safe.