New school opens in neighborhood full of sex offenders - Florida

Nothing Like Looking Out For The Children (sarcasm -- for those of you that are stupid), for the whole article, here...

"The sex predators were here first, so why build a school right across the street?" parent Gina Kelbaugh wondered.

The answer, according to school officials, is simply a lack of land.

"Unfortunately in Pinellas County, there's not a lot of vacant land for us to build new schools on. The property that the new school was built on was property that the school system had," explained Pinellas County schools spokesman Sterling Ivey.

But that property, on 28th Street North in St. Petersburg, sits less than 300 feet from a registered sexual predator's home. And contrary to what many people believe, he doesn't have to move; the terms of his probation say nothing about the distance he must live from a school.

Not only is there a sexual predator right across the street, but a mobile home park just two blocks from the school is home to at least 10 registered sex offenders.

"Down these streets, there's a liquor lounge over here and a bunch of trailer parks with a bunch of sexual predators. I have a problem with that," parent Cynthia Mitchell said.