A West Penn Township parent has requested that the Tamaqua Area School District move a rural bus stop, due to the stop's proximity to a registered sex offender under Megan's Law.

AnnMarie Helsley, who resides on Mush Dahl Road, addressed the district's board of education Tuesday evening regarding the bus drop off for Chain Circle and Mush Dahl.Helsley said that her children are Special Needs students.Helsley said that she has found out a registered sex offender lives near the bus stop. Following the board meeting, she explained she had heard rumors about this from her neighbors and looked it up on Pennsylvania's Megan's Law website.She provided copies of the registered offender's profile from the website to the school board members and administrators.Pennsylvania's Megan's Law requires the state police to create and maintain a registry of persons who reside, work/carry on a vocation, or attend school in the commonwealth and who have either been convicted of, entered a plea of guilty to, or adjudicated delinquent of certain sex offenses in Pennsylvania or another jurisdiction.State police are required to make certain information on registered sex offenders available to the public through the website.In addition to the presence of a potential sexual predator, Helsley expressed concerns for her children's safety due to the possibility of their biological father and his family members trying to abduct them along the rural drop off point; she claimed there had been kidnapping attempts in the past.There is also a bar located less than a mile away from the bus stop, which is open at drop-off time, she added.Helsley also noted that the road along that stop is surrounded by a wooded area with no sidewalks or berms and becomes icy during the winter.Helsley said she has had a continuous issue with the bus stop for three years and has been contacting the district's transportation department about it.Superintendent Carol Makuta said she and Mary Ellen Francis, the district's transportation manager, have spoken to Helsley. Makuta said the bus stop is two-tenths of a mile from Helsley's home and has been checked by Francis. Makuta added that she responded to Helsley's concerns by e-mail concerning the location of the stop."I am not disputing the distance. It's the safety conditions of the road," said Helsley. "You're not telling me it's safe to drop my child off at a sex offender's home? What's he going to do in the winter, when it's icy there?"Makuta said she was informed that bus stop has been the same. Helsley said it has been changed the last three years."I can't address issues with the neighborhood, only where the bus stop has been located," said Makuta. "A (school) vehicle has been coming past your house. We did look into it."Board President Larry A. Wittig asked Helsley if someone could be at the bus stop to meet her children."We do have parents who meet kids at bus stops," he said. Helsley said she works in Allentown but makes arrangements to have someone home when her children arrive from school.Wittig later spoke to Helsley following the public portion of the meeting and said he asked Makuta to calculate the added cost for changing the drop off point, although Helsley said she was told she might have to absorb the difference.No official action was taken on Helsley's request. The board's next meeting is on Tuesday, Sept. 21 at 7:30 p.m.