WASATCH COUNTY – More details are being released about why a registered sex offender was seen inside an elementary school. He was reportedly there to see a teacher, but, educators say he never should have been there.
Officials with the Wasatch County School District say Bruce Chatwin checked in at JR Smith Elementary school with his girlfriend and her daughter. District Administrator Jim Judd says a staffer looked up his name on the sex offender registry. “We had the person identified in a very short time of entering the school,” Judd says.
State law prohibits a sex offender from being on school grounds unless very specific guidelines are met. Judd says, “State law indicates registered sex offenders are only allowed to visit school if they have a biological child, a child of whom they are a legal guardian of at the school, and following certain protocols.”
Judd says the teacher Chatwin and his girlfriend were looking for was not available, so they went home where he was later arrested. “Because of the quick actions of the school, we believe that no students were ever in harm’s way,” Judd says.
(Stock Photo)