Missouri Ends Registry of Child Abusers

January 9, 2004 permalink

In Ontario, parents accused of abuse by Children's Aid and later exonerated by a judge remain on the child abuse registry. In Missouri a judge has rejected that procedure as unconstitutional. Perhaps an Ontario judge, under different constitutional law, will eventually make a similar decision.

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January 9, 2004

(Jefferson City-AP) -- A judge has declared Missouri's list of suspected child abusers unconstitutional.

Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan says the list does not adequately protect the rights of people who may have been accused, but never charged or convicted.

His ruling yesterday is in a case involving employees of the Heartland Christian Academy, a non-denominational school in northeast Missouri.

In 2001, school founder Charles Sharpe and three employees were placed on a registry of suspected child abusers, by a Division of Family Services officer. That was for paddling two children.

Neither Sharpe nor the other employees were convicted of child abuse. But requests to remove their names from the state-maintained registry were rejected during an administrative procedure.