Manassas Journal Messenger | Board OKs sex offender policy

The Manassas City School Board approved a new policy last week to inform school officials and staff members of sex offenders living near the city’s seven schools.

The new policy was first proposed at the School Board’s Aug. 16 meeting and was approved at the Sept. 20 business meeting.

The school division did not previously have a policy addressing how school officials should be informed of registered sex offenders living near the schools, said John Boronkay, assistant superintendent.

“We did not have a policy like this and I felt we needed to have something in place to address this,” Boronkay said.

Under the new policy, Manassas city schools Superintendent Chip Zullinger will receive automatic electronic notification from the state police of sex offenders living in ZIP code 20110, or other ZIP codes neighboring the city’s schools.

Zullinger will then notify the principal of the schools closest to the sex offender.

The information will also be distributed to school staff members who are likely to see unauthorized people on or near school grounds, including school bus drivers, coaches, playground supervisors, security staff and maintenance personnel.

According to the policy, these employees cannot share the information with others without authorization from the school division.

The school division cannot distribute information about specific people in the registry to parents.

At the beginning of each school year, the school division will notify parents about the policy and the state police Web site that houses the searchable sex offender registry.

The law specifies that sex offender information cannot be used to intimidate or harass others. Using the information for that purpose can be punished as a Class 1 misdemeanor.

The new policy is a preventative measure, Boronkay said.

“We want to be proactive. We wanted to have a policy that would tell us what to do with this information now and in the future,” he said.

The Virginia sex offender registry can be found online at http://sex-offender.vsp.state.va.us/cool-ICE.