Senate OKs barring teen sex offenders from schools, parks, daycare centers

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

SPRINGFIELD — Teenagers convicted of rape or kidnapping would join the list of sex offenders required to stay away from schools, public parks and day care centers under a bill the Illinois Senate passed Thursday.

The bill passed 42-2 with eight voting present. It now goes to the House. Sen. John Millner (R-Carol Stream), the bill’s chief Senate sponsor, said the proposal could have helped mothers such as Dora Larsen, who runs the Illinois group, Support for Homicide Survivors. Her daughter, Victoria Larsen, was murdered in 1979.

“One of our victim family members, Dora Larsen, had her 9-year-old daughter brutally sexually abused and murdered by a 15 year old, and if this law was in place that wouldn’t have happened,” Millner said.

The bill would prohibit teenage sex offenders from coming within 500 feet of a school building or park. It also establishes a 100-foot barrier for juvenile offenders at school bus stops along and forbids them working at a day care center.

Ten years after completion of of their sentences, juveniles can file for a waiver to be relinquished from the various restrictions — but only after a court ruling.

Critics of the bill argued that treatment programs for juvenile sex offenders have a successful track record of stopping repeat offenses upon release.

Sen. Shane Cultra (R-Onarga) believes the current system, which allows a judge to determine on an individual basis how to a handle a juvenile sex offender’s release, is the best solution to prevent repeat offenses.

“To paint all of them with the same brush is an injustice on them,” Cultra said.