Neighbors Seem Unconcerned by Letourneau

B U R I E N, Wash., Aug. 26 -- When public meetings are held to announce the release of a convicted child rapist into a community, they usually draw an angry crowd, but the few people who showed up for a recent release here seemed more curious than outraged.

Mary Kay Letourneau, the former elementary school teacher who had two children by a student who was in her sixth-grade class, is now a registered sex offender, but at a meeting Wednesday night to inform her new neighbors about her, there seemed to be little concern.

"I would have no problem if Mary Kay moved in right next to me. She's not a threat to my kids," Burien resident Jeri Shattuck said.

Another of Letourneau's neighbors, Kathleen McDermott, said "they're constantly setting Mary Kay Letourneaus loose."

Most complaints at the meeting Wednesday night, which drew 47 people to the 800-seat Highline Performing Arts Center, were directed at the number of sex offenders already on the streets in the town. Some residents noted that there is a clear difference in how people see female sex offenders and how they see men convicted of the same crimes.

"If she was a man living there, this place would probably be 10 times fuller than it is right now, " Burien resident Kristina Larsen said.

In the same zip code area that Letourneau now calls home, there are 27 other convicted sex offenders, according to the state's sex offender registry.

They're all men, and more than half of them are dangerous Level 3 sex offenders, including child rapists.

While only a handful of people came to the meeting to learn more about Letourneau, police hope residents realize there are 3,800 registered sex offenders in King County alone. There are thousands more who have not been caught, whose faces people don't even know, police said.

"Protecting your family and protecting your kids is what makes you safe, not memorizing every picture on a Web site," said Sgt. John Urquhart of the King County Sheriff's Department.