In her time working as the social service coordinator at the Hampton Police Department, Angela Kenbok has learned a lot of safety tips she teaches her own children.
But for parents who work in different professions, Kenbok believes it’s important that they learn how to navigate the Megan’s Law website and tell their children the difference between good and bad strangers. Megan’s Law requires that the Pennsylvania State Police maintain a registry of sex offenders who live or visit an area to notify the public of their presence.
“I work in an environment where it’s talked about frequently, but when you don’t get the information sent home from schools and stuff, you know, parents want to better educate their children for certain situations,” she said.
To help, Kenbok and the Hampton Township Police Department are hosting an educational safety meeting for parents from 7-9 p.m. Jan. 17 at the community center. Tracy Leet, an adjunct professor at Slippery Rock University and a clinician who specializes in Megan’s Law offenders, will lead the discussion. Kenbok said she will talk about how Megan’s Law works, how to use the website and good safety procedures to use at home.
Kenbok said she’ll also talk about the different tiers involved with the law. For example, Tier I sexual offenders have to register for 15 years, compared to 25 years for Tier II offenders and lifetime for Tier III offenders.
“That way if you do have individuals within your community, you at least know what type of treatment and protocols they have to follow,” she said.
This program isn’t the only safety training the police department hosted recently. Kenbok and Carl Good, a school resource officer, facilitated training for about 12 parents on stranger safety earlier this month. Kenbok said they talked about internet safety and strategies to teach kids when strangers approach them. For example, if a child’s stomach is upset they might be nervous, which could be a sign that they should seek safety with a trusted person.
Parents must register by Friday at 8 a.m. at hampton-pa.org if they’d like to attend the educational safety meeting. It’s free to attend, and Kenbok said about 40 people were registered as of Thursday morning.
