Senate Bill 1192 - Preventing Pedophiles from Volunteering and Working with Children

By Liz Figueroa

A gap in California's current sex offender law allows a registrant who committed a crime against a minor to be employed or volunteer in a position that works directly with minors on more than an occasional basis as long as they reveal their status as a registrant. SB 1192 closed this loophole.

Eric Owen McCumsey, a registered sex offender living in Oakland, volunteered in a fifth-grade class in Hayward. McCumsey received his first conviction for a sex offense when he worked in a church and was charged with ten counts of lewd acts with children under 14 and with performing oral copulation on a minor. His second conviction was for molesting and performing oral copulation on a 3-year-old and a 6-year-old. In the Hayward classroom, McCumsey began by helping the teacher with after-school computer work. According to parents, he then started to help in the classroom, where he worked unsupervised with students both in small groups and individually.

Children pleaded with their parents to check out McCumsey because "there was something not right about him." One parent observed McCumsey "vigorously rubbing students' shoulders" and 10 others had been contacted directly by McCumsey because he wanted their children's private email addresses. Oakland police, where McCumsey registers as a sex offender, told the press, "He tries to get jobs - as a teacher, baby sitter, tutor - where he can build trust. He gets their trust, and then when he gets alone with the child he violates that trust." McCumsey's only crime this time was not revealing his status as a registered sex offender when he began volunteering. Current sex offender law does not prevent McCumsey from having access to children in this situation or in future volunteer positions such as Girl Scouts or Little League.

PROPOSAL: Prohibits a sex offender registrant who committed a crime against a minor from being employed or acting as a volunteer with any person, group, or organization where he or she would be working directly with minors on more than an incidental and occasional basis.