About 30 Elma High School students walked out of class Friday after learning a classmate was a convicted sex offender.
The students had first met with the school district’s superintendent, Howard King, before demonstrating on Elma’s Main Street, voicing their concerns that sex offenders can be in the schools without notification to parents.
The students had recently learned that a 17-year-old, part-time Elma High student had pleaded guilty to two charges of rape of a child in December 2014. They learned of his identity after a clerical error at the Sheriff’s Office led to his photo and information being posted on the county’s sex offender website. There is no legal notification requirement for registered sex offenders of the student’s level — Level 1, or a low risk to re-offend.
“Some students took offense and thought that student shouldn’t be in our schools,” King said on Tuesday. “I tried to explain we don’t have that authority.”
Prosecutors said the student had sexual contact with two children younger than 10. The student had no prior criminal history. He was sentenced to two years probation and sex-offender treatment and ordered to attend school. Since the teen is not considered a high-risk to offend, the district must allow him to attend class, according to the state. The teen is classified as a Level 1 sex offender by the courts, the least dangerous level.
“Students have a right to public education, and that’s statewide,” King said. “If we took matters into our own hands, we could face legal consequences.”
Students were upset, not just about the particular student at Elma High but also with the larger issue, said Lacie Clark, a parent of a former Elma High student who had participated in Friday’s protest.
“It’s not about this one boy,” Clark said. “It’s about parents being informed of every and all sex offenders at their schools. They have the right to know.”
Disappointed by the district’s inability to act on the matter, students left school to protest, a move condemned by the district. The district has considered forgiving the students for their truancy.
“I told the students, ‘If you conduct yourselves appropriately, we may look the other way,’ ” King recounted.
A bus from the district was sent to pick up the students to return them to school after some time. Some, but not all, students boarded the bus and returned to the school. The district has not decided if any disciplinary measures will be taken against students who did not return, and the district would not comment further on student discipline.
“We will follow normal procedures,” King said. “We have a job here, and that job is to make sure students attend school.”
The student should never have been posted to the county’s sex-offender notification website, Grays Harbor Sheriff’s Office Chief Criminal Deputy Steve Shumate said on Tuesday. By state law, Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders are posted, but Level 1 offenders are not. A clerical error (an unchecked box in computer software) led to the student’s photo and some details being uploaded.
“As soon as the error was brought to our attention, we remedied it immediately,” Shumate said. “We have hundreds of registered sex offenders we deal with, and unfortunately this can occur from time to time — but I can’t recall the last time it occurred. It’s unfortunate, but it is what it is.”
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