I-TEAM: Juvenile Sex Offenders Attending Area Schools

by ABC-7 Reporter/Anchor Celina Avila

EL PASO, Texas — Most sex offenders cannot live near a school or work with children, but the rules don’t apply to all.

The ABC-7 I-Team has uncovered a number of juvenile sex offenders already inside schools.

“As far as students we don’t have many in the school districts,” said Tony Ruvalcaba, an officer with the El Paso Police Department’s Sex Offender Unit.

“The law does require them to register in the schools,” Ruvalcaba said.

But a sex offender in their child’s classroom is one too many for some parents.

“We have to follow the law but I don’t think that’s fair for our children…those children should be pulled out and taught somewhere else,” said parent Monica Velasquez.

According to the El Paso Police Department, there are five juvenile sex offenders who are now attending public schools in the El Paso area.

Licensed sex offender treatment specialist Margie Aguilar Desrosiers said she has worked with more than that.

“I would venture to say that there’s 25 within the whole county,” Desrosiers said.

She said most juvenile sex offenders enrolled in public schools are considered a low to moderate risk and need to be there.

“It’s not about rehabilitation, it’s about education,” Desrosiers said.

Desrosiers said it is very important to maintain those students’ confidentiality. “They themselves can become victims of adult sex offenders or simply violence.”

Federal laws prevent district officials from identifying a sex offender student as well as informing parents about the sex offenders attending their children’s school.

The ABC-7 I-Team uncovered these students are not all juveniles. One 19-year-old registered sex offender raped a 4-year-old girl when he was 14. His registry showed El Paso High School as his employer.

”That one is probably that he’s a student at the school,” Ruvalcaba said.

Because of federal laws, an El Paso ISD spokeswoman could only confirm that the offender was actually a student and no longer attending school there.

Ruvalcaba said the best weapon for parents is the public registry for sex offenders, and it does have a lot of information.

The Web site even shows the sex offender’s risk level.

“They can research it zip code, they can research it by name and address if they needed to,” Ruvalcaba said.

But not by school if the offender is a juvenile.

When ABC-7 mapped El Paso High School, the location came up clean, and that is because authorities want these offenders’ identities protected.

“These children keep a very low profile in the schools,” Desrosiers said.

Desrosiers said in her experience, parents should be more concerned about the typical bully than a juvenile sex offender. “It’s rare when an incident occurs or reoccurs in the school.”

One student said juvenile offenders should not be outcasts for mistakes in their past.

“Surely, what they did on the past is completely wrong, but they also need an education, they also need to go to school,” said Christian Lerma.

But some parents said it is not worth the risk.

”They have to be educated yes, but they don’t have to be educated with the normal population,” said Norma Price.

”I wonder how the school district would feel if a child was assaulted or raped on the property and they knew who the predator was,” said Bill Williams.

Ruvalcaba said parents should definitely be concerned about registered sex offenders but also those who are not.

“In all our communities we have a lot of people that are sex offenders…they just have never been caught,” Ruvalcaba said.

El Paso ISD officials would give an on-camera interview but sent ABC-7 a statement:

“The District’s responsibility is to provide a safe learning environment and we are proactive in protecting all of our students and staff. For example, we have invested $2 million in the installation of cameras in our secondary (middle and high) schools. Additionally, all of our middle and high schools have police officers on staff to assist in the protection of our students.”

Because of federal laws, the Ysleta ISD said they cannot discuss of release information regarding any specific student.

And Socorro ISD officials said they have no known sex offenders in the district.