[hackerspaces] Sex Offenders at a 'Space

[Wilco Baan Hofman]

Hi,

My first question would be if he was 27 at the time, or 27 now. 2007 is
8 years ago and people at 19 are very different from 27, plus the age
difference would smaller and it would be easier to accept that the
person changed by now.. I might want to talk with this person to find
out how he feels about this issue and see if this person would even be a
fit for a hackerspace..

If this happened at 27, then my answer would be no, not welcome.

It would be difficult to trust somebody like that with 24/7 access to
the space either way.

-- Wilco



On 10/02/15 21:23, Steve Bowman wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> The board of our 'space has recently received a notification from a
> Parole Officer (PO) that a sex offender is interested in visiting and
> possibly joining our organization. We asked for further clarification
> on the crime and the response was as follows (some info redacted for
> privacy)
>
>     In regards to the offense that he is on supervision for, it
>     involved Mr. XXX (27 years old) inappropriately touching a 13 year
>     old female neighbor.  This occurred on several occasions in 2007
>     before he was arrested.  He is required to register with the XX
>     Sex Offender Registry Program for his entire lifetime.
>
>
> Our organizational structure allows us to refuse admission to a new
> member for any reason. This option has never been exercised before.
>
> Based on the size of our organization, and local statistics (Sex
> offender/unit population), it's likely that we have a few sex
> offenders in our membership already - statistically at least. We
> haven't and do not plan on conducting background checks The only
> reason this topic is being discussed is since we received notification
> from the PO, which is legally required from them based on the nature
> and severity of crime.
>
> A few details specific to our organization that may be important to
> this discussion. We do not allowed members under 18. But many members
> bring their kids with them. The kids must always be supervised but,
> being kids, do get away once in a while. All members have 24/7 access
> to our facility
>
> So my question is - *have other 'spaces dealt with this situation in
> the past? If yes, how? Or if does come up, how would you deal with it
> in the future? *
> *
> *
> *If we do let this person in, should we notify all members? *That
> might start a witch hunt or get this person treated in a unfair
> manner. Unfair is obviously open to individual interpretations.
>
> I welcome and appreciate feedback from past experiences and/or
> personal opinions.  
>
> Thanks,
> Steve
>
> P.S. Is there way to search this mailing list archive so I can consult
> previous discussions on this and other topics. I can download the
> archive and implement a search function but maybe there is a better
> way already...
>
>
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> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
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