Safety of Brentwood can lull some to drop their guard

Thursday, 02/09/06

To the Editor:
The news of an attempted child abduction near my subdivision on Jan. 28 brought home the need to teach my children to protect themselves even in a safe community like Brentwood.
The victim last month was suspicious of an adult seeking information from her, a child. She also remembered a policeman at school saying a person trying to kidnap you is always trying to "find" something. She also knew to run in the direction opposite of the way the car is facing to aid the escape.
I would like to think my kids would be as savvy as this little girl. Frankly, I think they wouldn't. We are from Chicago, where everyday inconveniences included bicycle thefts, people with "broken down" cars asking for money, and door-to-door hustles. Brentwood life seems by comparison trouble-free. I was always on guard and suspicious of strangers in Chicago, and happily we never had anything truly awful happen. (One of my daughters did get stabbed in the hand by a boy with an unregistered pencil, but that's another story).
If someone approached my kids now I think they would be happy, helpful and maybe dead. Their parents have taught them to be polite and love their fellow man. Nothing happens here ... right?
Two years ago while working in one of my kid's school clubs I met a parent who painfully related how her child was molested by a teacher at an extracurricular sports activity ... in Brentwood!
This week I received an e-mail from a former Brentwood neighbor. She shared information with me that I was both shocked and grateful to have. I have long known that a public registry exists of all sex offenders' addresses. How to access the registry has always been a mystery to me, but no longer.
By going to this Web site, http://www12.familywatchdog.us/, I can access the National Sex Offender Registry. By typing in an address I can see little colored dots for all convicted sex offenders within a 10-mile radius of the address. Click on the dot and I get the name and address of the perpetrator and details of their crime. Pretty scary stuff!
I put in my address and found out a mile away lives a man convicted of selling child pornography in 1998. In the Legends lives a convicted rapist as well as someone convicted of offenses against children. I put in the address I grew up at in Chicago ... that location was a blur of blue, yellow and red dots.
I think I have been lulled into a false state of complacency regarding my children's safety. (I won't even go into all the trouble kids could get into with all the sexual weirdoes on the Internet.) In the future I think I will be more suspicious and careful, even though I live in Brentwood. Yes, I will continue to hate the sin and love the sinner ... but now I will find out where he lives!
Joan Welbourn
Brentwood 37027