Rep. Emerson Levy (D-Central Oregon) introduced legislation to the House Committee on Judiciary to keep sex offenders out of schools. HB 3839 directs state police to ensure that level one and level two sex offender information is available to school districts and entities providing school visitor management services.
In 2022, a convicted child sex offender got past a secure door and into High Desert Middle School because the school didn’t have access to this crucial information.
“The need for this bill became apparent when we experienced a child sex offender entering a school in my district, ” said Levy. “Bend La-Pine Superintendent Dr. Steve Cook and I have been working on this legislation to ensure that a situation like this never happens again.”
Superintendent Cook joined Rep. Levy in giving testimony at the Public Hearing. “Despite investing millions of dollars in school security—including sophisticated visitor management systems like Raptor—we discovered a critical flaw in our sex offender screening process,” said Cook. “Our current system in Oregon, which we believed was comprehensive, can only identify Level 3 sex offenders, approximately 5.3% of all registered sex offenders in Oregon, leaving almost 95% of Oregon’s registered sex offenders undetected.”
Current approved screening tools can leave out thousands of registered sex offenders.
“Our children and communities deserve better. As a legislative body, we should be doing everything we can to keep our students safe,” said Levy in her public testimony, which can be found here. “This is a public safety issue, and I am committed to solving this dangerous vulnerability in our school safety protocols.”
