”
Due to the popularity of this application and the public safety
interest, we have reached our maximum capacity on our servers.
Please try again later.
”
That’s the message I have seen six times in the past two days
while trying to get on the Web site www.meganslaw.ca.gov.
“Due to the popularity of this application and the public safety interest, we have reached our maximum capacity on our servers. Please try again later. ” That’s the message I have seen six times in the past two days while trying to get on the Web site www.meganslaw.ca.gov.
Three weeks ago, I was able to access the site. Unfortunately, I did not have the time to go through all the names and accompanying pictures of the registered sex offenders who are living in Gilroy. I still feel somewhat conflicted about this site.
As a parent, I value the fact that this information is available to me. But I also see gaps in the information provided to the public. I have no sympathy for sex offenders. But our system of justice is supposed to punish the guilty, and I can imagine there will be ramifications for the families of those people who have served their sentences.
Families may suffer guilt by association or be targeted by an overzealous citizen.
It would be helpful to know, for example, that a 40-year-old registered sex offender had served time for a crime committed 20 years ago. Society doesn’t condone a 20-year-old male having sex with his 17-year-old girlfriend, hence this is considered statutory rape. Many years later, that man could be on the registered sex offender list, even if he is now married to that same woman and the father of their children. I am not worried that this man is a threat to me or my children, but I have no way of knowing the circumstances of his rape conviction. While I appreciate being able to see the faces of those who may potentially be a threat, I can never know the full story behind those faces.
Many of the offenders named in Gilroy live on the east side of town. I attribute this to the fact that most ex-convicts are unable to afford a single-family home in Gilroy and reside in apartments which are mostly on the east side of town.
This database gives parents another tool to use as we attempt to raise children in an increasingly dangerous world. I hope all parents who are trying to access the database don’t have to wait too long.
Regarding crime on a smaller scale, I was not initially alarmed at the Gilroy High School cheating story which appeared in the Dispatch last week. I was more worried after talking to a few high school students, as all of them reported that cheating is widespread and accepted as “just the way it is.” My daughter has told me that she has never asked for answers on a test, but has been asked to give answers to those around her. A discussion in one of her classes revealed that cheating is practiced by a wide variety of students.
I never cheated in high school or college. I never saw the point in it; I needed to know what I was tested on.
Very few kids cheated at my high school, which was a private school with smaller class sizes. Cheating then, as now, was a sign of laziness. More kids cheat now, and it is easier to get away with because classes are crowded, and teachers have 30 to 40 kids to monitor.
This should be a wake-up call to teachers to be more diligent in managing their classroom. The fact that many students don’t feel that cheating is unethical is a symptom of a larger problem. It may be that students cheat because that kind of behavior is tolerated by their peers, their parents and the school they attend. Cheating will never completely cease to exist, but we are doing society a disservice if we don’t address the culture that allows it to continue.
