Why Won’t Community Boot Sex Offenders?
Why do Parents Leave Kids Alone?
By Michael Horowitz
BRONX, NEW YORK, May 17- Civic activist Frank Belcher declared, this week, that a child in the community will have to be sexually attacked before members of the Riverbay board take action to bar sex offenders from the local community.
Belcher, who has been waging a prolonged battle to have sex offenders barred from Co-op City, made his comments following last Friday's near-kidnapping of a 6-year-old boy in front of Section 5's PS 160.
“A child or a woman will have to be sexually attacked before Co-op City acts to boot sex offenders from this community,” said Belcher, whose five-year battle to bar sex criminals has been largely ignored by Co-op City officials.
Belcher emphasized, “I don't even know if a sex attack of a child will convince members of the Riverbay board and management officials that they need to take action. I think that someone is going to have to die at the hands of a sexual pervert before the board takes action to do what should have been done years ago --- bar the sex offenders from living in our community.”
Belcher noted that one of the first things the city's police did in their investigation of last Friday's near- kidnapping was circulate photos of the seven registered sex offenders who are living in Co-op City.
Belcher added, “It should be pointed out that three of these registered sex offenders live in Section 5, very close to where the attack on the 6-year-old boy took place last Friday morning. It is unconscionable that neither the members of the Riverbay board nor Co-op City's management officials seem to care enough to take action aimed at barring sex offenders from living in our community.”
The civic activist stressed, “As far as I'm concerned, the powers that be, through their inaction, have shirked their responsibilities to keep shareholders safe in their homes.”
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Children should not be left alone at their schools
By Michael Horowitz
BRONX, NEW YORK, May 17- Civic activists Joyce Wilson and Frank Belcher said, this week, it defies logic for parents to have their young children wait alone at their schools up to an hour before the start of the school day.
Wilson and Belcher made their comments in response to reports that the mother of a 6-year-old boy, who was almost kidnapped last Friday morning, was left in front of PS 160 an hour before the start of his school's breakfast program.
John Vazquez, the custodial worker who foiled the Section 5 kidnapping of the boy, said that the 6 year old was left, unattended, in front of the school at 7 a.m. on a daily basis since the start of the school year in September.
In the wake of last Friday's near-tragedy, the boy's guardians now take the child to school, no longer leaving him unattended, Vazquez said Tuesday.
Wilson. a long-time volunteer at the community's schools, said, Tuesday, “It's just common sense not to leave a 6-year-old child unattended anywhere or any time, especially at 7 a.m. Young children, especially in this day and age, need to be accompanied by adults.”
Wilson noted, “I volunteer at the community's schools even though I no longer have children of school age. I volunteer because I love children. It shouldn't be too much to ask for parents to take their children to school or arrange for someone responsible to take their children to school. There's no excuse for having a 6-year-old child wait, on his own, in front of a school an hour before the start of school.”
Belcher, for his part, called on the city's child-welfare officials to take action against the mother who routinely arranged for her 6-year-old child to be left, unattended, in front of PS 160 on a regular basis.
“You really can't print what I think of this mother,” Belcher stressed. “Parents who neglect their children on a regular basis --- the way this mother did --- deserve to go to jail. We need to send a powerful message that this kind of neglect of children will not be tolerated.”
Wilson, while acknowledging that the 6-year-old boy's mother bears considerable responsibility for last Friday's near kidnapping of the boy, added, “We need to have an increased presence of NYPD officers and Public Safety officers in the vicinity of our schools to guard against this kind of thing.”
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