ICCSD board to mull placement of student sex offender

The Iowa City Community School Board next week will consider in which building to educate a student required to register as a sex offender.

Superintendent Stephen Murley said Iowa law requires the district to offer education to all school-age children living within the district, including individuals who must register as sex offenders.

The School Board will discuss the issue in a closed session before the board’s regular meeting Tuesday.

Murley said the U.S. Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act requires district officials to withhold most information about the situation from the public, including the name of the individual, the criminal offense he or she committed and the name of the building where officials will place the individual.

He said Iowa law also requires school boards to hold placement hearings to determine where to educate such individuals.

“This is new territory for us. We have not done this at least since I’ve been here,” Murley said.

He said he also thinks this situation is a first in the history of the district.

Murley said district officials will work with the individual’s parents on the process of placing him or her and said the individual could be placed at a variety of schools or district buildings.

He said when the district works with students in the judicial system or dealing with mental health concerns, officials often place them at the Theodore Roosevelt Education Center.

“That’s certainly an option for us as we look at placements for kids that are similarly situated,” he said.

Karin Hamilton, a public service executive at the Iowa Sex Offender Registry, said a registered sex offender who has committed an offense against a minor is not allowed to be on school property unless that person is enrolled in that school.

“There is, essentially, an exemption if that person is enrolled as a student,” she said.

Hamilton said there are not many juveniles who are registered as sex offenders in Iowa, which would suggest the situation the ICCSD faces is not common.

She said Iowa law requires juveniles who are registered as sex offenders to register information about whether they attend school.

School Board President Chris Lynch declined to comment on the situation, saying he will receive more information Tuesday.

Individuals convicted of tier I, tier II or tier III classified offenses in a section of Iowa law covering the sex offender registry are required to register as sex offenders. These crimes include forms of sexual abuse, harassment, indecent exposure, disseminating obscene materials to minors, possession of child pornography, lascivious acts with a child, soliciting minors to engage in illegal sex acts, indecent contact with a child, sexually motivated cases of murder or manslaughter and many others.

Reach Holly Hines at hhines2@press-citizen.com or at 887-5414.