'Megan's
Law' mom delivers advice on how to prevent future
tragedies
Kanka says government can't
protect kids as well as aware and observant parents.
Thursday, October 13, 2005 • By SARAH CASSI •
The Express-Times
PHILLIPSBURG -- Legislation is not enough
to protect children from pedophiles.
That's what Maureen Kanka, the New Jersey
woman whose daughter Megan's rape and murder in 1994 spawned
nationwide sex-offender registration, told a crowd of about
65 people Wednesday night at Phillipsburg High
School.
Kanka was in town to present "Who's
Watching Our Children?" a seminar about sexual
predators.
During the seminar Kanka said legislation
such as Megan's Law is a tool, but she stressed that
educating children and keeping open lines of communication
help parents protect their children.
Kanka said parents should explain "good
touch and bad touch" and recommended against assigning
nicknames to body parts.
"God forbid if something should happen,
you want to make sure your children can properly identify
where something was touched," Kanka said.
Parents should also train their children
to follow boundaries, Kanka said. Parents should always know
where their children are playing, who they are playing with
and what adults are present, she said.
Kanka recommended parents start setting
boundaries as early as the age of 2, after she said it took
two years to train her son not to go into people's houses
without permission.
"The earlier you teach them, it becomes a
way of life," Kanka said. "When you have to reinvent the
wheel, it's much harder."
Megan Kanka was 7 when she was lured into
the Hamilton Township, N.J., home of Jesse Timmendequas and
two other convicted pedophiles across the street from the
Kankas' home. Timmendequas raped and suffocated Megan on
July 29, 1994, then dumped her body in a park.
Since her daughter's death Maureen Kanka
created The Megan Nicole Kanka Foundation, a nonprofit
organization. Besides seminars the foundation runs "Check
'Em Out," a program that helps nonprofit sports
organizations in New Jersey pay for state and federal
fingerprint checks on their coaches and managers.
At the seminar, Councilman James Shelly
said council will discuss requiring background checks,
including fingerprinting, for coaches in the town's
recreation department at council's Oct. 18
meeting.
Kanka said she commends Phillipsburg and
other municipalities for initiating pedophile-free zone
legislation, which would ban convicted sex offenders from
living near areas where children congregate. She said the
legislation does create problems.
"The larger area that you prohibit, you
force them into other towns," Kanka said. "We don't want
them in our neighborhoods. We want you to lock them up and
throw away the key."
© 2005 The Express-Times. Used with
permission.
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