Children have rights at least equal to offenders

Whoever wrote the watchdog item regarding the "Second Chances" halfway house for sex offenders needs to do a little honest research into the lifelong effects (all of them negative) of sexual assault. There are many therapists, faith-based and community-based programs, and victims themselves who I am certain would be glad to provide true, factual information, and who would paint a different picture than the cavalier, dismissive attitude displayed by this writer.

Sexual assault on a child is NOT a "premature sexual experience"! I state with certainty that NO small child dreams of having their first sexual experience be a forced, violent one at the hands of a stranger!

As for the resultant damage being "neither fatal or, in most case (sic), likely to have lasting results", I can name six fatal child abduction rape/murders in recent years by name without breaking a sweat. Megan's Law is named for one of them. As for the likelihood of "lasting results", it is obvious that the writer was not molested as a child. Well, praise God for that!

Those of us who were not so fortunate would have written your Watchdog item in a very different tone and with very different choice of words. You see, we think something that has impacts the rest of your life could rightly be said to have "lasting results". This is not an issue of Puritanical views. This is not an issue of "fear and sex", if you mean NORMAL, HEALTHY, CONSENSUAL SEX! This is about parents wanting their children to be safe, and to be able to just be children. This is about protecting children from perversion and predators.

I appreciate wild animals. I respect their right to exist and go about their business. I am a vegan. I am no threat to them in the least. But I would not want a family of black bears living in the trees behind my house. I would want them relocated to State Game Lands, where they would be safe and my kids would be safe to play outside.

I appreciate that men who have finished their sentences and paid their debt to society need to have a place to re-integrate. But just as I would not want an recovering alcoholic to be given a job as a bartender, a jewel thief to be handed a job at Tiffany's, I do not want recovering sex offenders dropped into the middle of the community in an apartment building housing other people and their children, who have rights at least equal to the offenders'!

Editor's note: The context for "premature sexual experience" was as follows: "Though not meaning to belittle the seriousness of involving children in premature sexual experiences, we believe far greater and lasting damages results from psychological abuse, assault, reckless driving, criminal neglect, and murder."