CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Some parents are wondering how a registered sex offender ended up living no less than a few yards away from a Corpus Christi elementary school.
Parents whose children attend Woodlawn Elementary School said there is a sign in the yard outside the home warning of the sex offender, and they want to know how that was allowed to happen.
"I don't care for it at all," one parent said. "I mean, I like the sign that's there but I don't like, you know, that it's 20 feet from the school."
Tana Neighbors has a child who attends Woodlawn Elementary School and while knowing there's a registered sex offender living literally that close to where her child attends school, she's even more concerned that person is not the only one living nearby.
"We did receive a mailer in the mail that it was just a resident that is at such and such address, and it did give a headshot. It wasn't this address, but it was another individual on Bernice," Neighbors said. "I wasn't informed about this one, nor should I have been. I don't know but that was a little of a shock. We've never had that before in the area."
"Obviously we don't like it," said Kirby Warnke, Chief of the Corpus Christi Independent School District Police Department.
Warnke said the district makes sure students are taught about stranger danger, especially in areas where registered sex offenders are known to live.
What parents want to know is: Are they allowed to live this close to a school?
"Well it is a free society, and so we can't dictate where people live, but I'm glad that we know about it and once again, we go back to the teaching and training of our students," Warnke said.
"He has done his time so he can live wherever he wants to," said Yolanda Balli, Sex Offender Registrar for the Corpus Christi Police Department. "However, he does have to have a sign."
Balli is the point of contact for the more than 1,200 sex offenders currently living in the city of Corpus Christi, of which 90-percent comply with the rules such as checking in with Balli and notifying her when they move. She said she is often asked what does a sex offender look like?
"I have homeless people, I have people at the top of the food chain, from jail to Yale," Balli said. "I have everybody."
If you want to know where registered sex offenders live in your community, there are several websites including www.dps.org, www.offenderwatch.com, and www.crimereports.com.
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