Superintendent: Sex-offender notice was a mistake

A notification that Parents for Megan’s Law, a Long Island not-for-profit organization, distributed on Feb. 2 falsely stated that a sex offender was living near Camp Avenue School in North Merrick, according to David Feller, superintendent of the North Merrick School District. The individual named in the notification is actually in prison, Feller reported.

Feller emailed North Merrick parents on Feb. 3 to share this information. He wrote that he confirmed with Parents for Megan’s Law and the Nassau County Police Department that the individual is currently incarcerated.

“This Parents for Megan’s Law notice was sent in error, as the offender is still incarcerated and not residing in North Merrick,” Feller stated.

The notice had claimed that a Level 2 sex offender was residing “in close proximity” to Camp Avenue School, which is on Merrick Avenue, according to Feller. New York classifies sex offenders into three tiers, in escalating order of danger. Level 2 offenders pose a “medium risk of re-offense,” according to the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services.

Immediately after the North Merrick School District received the notice, Feller alerted other administrators, district staff and the Bellmore Merrick Child Care Program, which runs the district’s before- and after-school programs, instructing them to call the police if they saw the offender “anywhere near school property,” his email stated. He then began writing a message to district parents, but he decided to verify his facts before sending it and checked the state’s Sex Offender Registry, according to the email. The registry did not confirm the information from Parents for Megan’s Law, Feller reported.

The superintendent next contacted Parents for Megan’s Law. “I was told that the individual was, in fact, still incarcerated and that his next hearing was scheduled for October 2015,” Feller stated. “The explanation for the faulty notification was that it was the result of a state error.”

Feller said in the email that he then contacted the NCPD’s 1st Precinct, which informed him that the person is in prison.

The North and Central Merrick Neighborhood Watch Program emailed local residents on Feb. 2 to warn them that “there is a sex offender on” a street near Camp Avenue School, and the school district received calls from several concerned parents, Feller later told the Herald.

In his email clarifying the situation, Feller said their concerns were “very understandable.”

“Please be assured that we are extremely vigilant in any matter pertaining to the safety of our children and community,” Feller wrote. “Should we receive updated information about this individual, we will let you know.”