Towns Push To Restrict Sex Offenders
- May
- 15
7:17 pm Live Window
A pane of glass, a chain-link fence and a few yards of grass were all that stood between the Level 3 sex offender and the playground.
Now Rockland parents are breathing a sigh of relief after learning that a convicted child rapist will no longer be living next to a pair of nursery schools and across the street from Holy Family School.
His landlord has asked him to move out.
Parent Debbie Batchelder-Totte said she never feared for her son, who played at the day-care center next door. Still, the sex offender’s presence was unsettling.
“Everybody deserves to live somewhere. I just don’t want them next to my day care, or across the street from my church,†Batchelder-Totte said.
Similar concerns are spreading across the South Shore this spring.
Four towns have considered new laws to prohibit sex offenders from living near schools, parks, day-care centers and other places frequented by children.
This past week, Rockland and Weymouth adopted restrictions, just as at least six other Massachusetts towns have done in the past year. Scituate rejected a similar measure in March. Hull voters took no action on a proposed bylaw this past week.
In Weymouth, sex offenders classified as Level 3 – the category of offender judged most likely to commit another offense – can no longer move to a residence within 1,500 feet of any school, playground, day-care center or recreational facility.
Rockland’s new sex-offender bylaw, which needs the state attorney general’s approval, would ban any Level 2 or Level 3 sex offender from living within 1,000 feet of a school, playground, day-care center, place of worship, library or elderly housing facility.
“If we didn’t do anything, we’d become a magnet for these people,†Rockland Zoning Board of Appeals Chairman Robert Manzella said.
The number of sex offenders living and working in Rockland has risen sharply.
Four years ago, Rockland had six Level 2 sex offenders and one high-risk offender living or working in town. Today, there are six high-risk offenders and 24 moderate-risk offenders.
The six Level 3 sex offenders include George T. Rhodes of 408 Union St., across from Holy Family School. Pictures of all six are on display on the Internet, and at the police station, town hall and the library.
Batchelder-Totte said she saw Rhodes’ picture at the community center as she was taking her 5-year-old son to day care.
She, like a lot of parents, was unaware that a convicted rapist could live so close, and finding out alarmed her.
“Not that I was worried that they were going to grab my kid,†she said, “but they could watch these children very closely.â€
Under Rockland’s bylaw, Rhodes could not be forced to move, since he took up residence before the town’s bylaw vote.
However, police and town hall officials said they were told any sex offenders residing at 408 Union St. have been asked to leave by Toyin Adebanjo, their landlord. Adebanjo did not return phone messages this week.
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