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The Story of Chelsea King

By: Serena Scott Thomas

We hear once again how vulnerable we all are to these evil predators.  My heart goes out to her family and friends and to all those who have lost a child in any way.  It is a fear that all parents live with from the day that our children are born, a nightmare that I believe I personally would not survive and I am grieving with you all.  I am also angry.  Furious that the justice system has failed to protect us, again.

John Albert Gardner, the perpetrator of this sickening crime, at the time of Chelsea’s disappearance, was already known as a sex offender and was being harbored by his parents.  He is also suspected in an attack on another young girl a few days earlier and the disappearance of Amber Dubois. It enrages me to discover that this could have been so easily prevented and to know that the systems in place that are meant to protect us are so flawed.  I urge every parent to inform themselves about sex offenders living in your neighborhoods.  It is a sad fact that they are there, but they are there nonetheless.

I myself am guilty of burying my head in the sand pile of disclosures given to me when I bought my house, which included the Megan’s Law Disclosures.  I am ashamed that it has taken the news of this appalling event to get me to pay close enough attention.  There really is no excuse but fear and denial (Two understandable but not very helpful mind frames).

So what can we do? How can we protect our families and our society from this real and pervasive danger? We can, by staying informed and informing our children, in an age appropriate way, of course.  I am attaching a link to the government run web page where you can find details, photos, addresses and convictions of all the sex offenders in your area.  It is a free service, available any time and there is no registration involved, you just type in your zip code.  Please take a few minutes to face this ugly truth in the hope that these tragedies can be prevented from now on.  I know it’s uncomfortable, but what’s a few moment discomfort compared to a horrible death of a child and a lifetime of  interminable grieving?  My heart goes out to the King and Dubois families.  I wish them solace and comfort and thank them for the courage and generosity of spirit that enables them to speak out and perhaps help prevent this from happening to your children or mine.  With regret, Serena.

Megans Law

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Tags: Chelsea King, Megans law, Sex offenders, sexual predators

This entry was posted on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 5:08 pm and is filed under Woodland Hills. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1. debbie said at March 9th, 2010 at 9:02 pm

   Thanks for sending this out Serena…it is so scary to think about “who” lives in our neighborhoods…but we do need to be aware of our surroundings..I have an app that I downloaded onto my Iphone that people thought I was being ridiculous about….and then things like this continue to happen……

2. Roger Ewing said at March 10th, 2010 at 10:30 am

   There is an app for megans law?

3. Serena said at March 10th, 2010 at 11:21 am

   Yes! There was an Iphone app that you could use to access the Megan’s Law database. This app has been pulled from stores by Apple, apparently to conform to Ca laws concerning the selling of info.

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