At the December 5, 2022 GHAPS school board meeting, the board voted unanimously to make three policy changes. Changes to board policy 9150 – School Visitors makes it easier for sex offenders to visit schools. Prior to this change, visits from PARENTS who are registered sex offenders that wished to visit a school to participate in their child’s school activities were subject to the discretion of the principal. Now, visits by ANY registered sex offender who wishes to visit a school will be at the discretion of the superintendent. The full policy change can be read below.
Don’t sex offenders have to stay away from schools?
Parents are allowed to attend conferences, music concerts, sports games or anything else if their child is a participant regardless of the parent’s criminal history. So, a parent that is a registered sex offender would only be allowed on school campus if an event directly involved their child. For example, they couldn’t be on campus to see a basketball game if their child wasn’t on the team. The way the policy was previously written correlated to the state’s laws.
In talking with parents from other school districts, it is my understanding that this change was made to keep school policy in line with recent legislation passed by Governor Whitmer and that Whitmer’s changes were made to keep Michigan law in line with the Biden Administration. All of these changes lessen restrictions on sex offenders and can allow pedophiles more access to children.
What’s interesting is that there was no mention of sex offenders by GHAPS board members at any board meeting, and there was no discussion on this policy change. Members of the public who regularly attend board meetings had no idea the board was making a policy change regarding sex offenders. Clearly board members did not want to raise public awareness of this policy change.
How can GHAPS claim they are being transparent?
Board members vote on policies that govern the school. If this policy is a state law, why would board members have to vote? Is this a case of Michigan policymakers pressuring school districts to make changes or suffer the consequences of reduced state school funding? Did you know GHAPS gets $17 million of its budget from local taxpayers and $48 million from the State of Michigan?
This change was just adopted into the grand Haven School district policy. None of the board members had any questions and just blindly voted yes to adopt the change. Please read it carefully. It is allowing sex offenders into the schools that aren’t even parents. It opens up more questions than answers. I would encourage you each to write all of the board members and ask them to explain why they voted for this change. Ask them to explain what it means in their own words since they did not have any questions about it.