To the editor:

I attended the court hearing in Leavenworth regarding sexual predator housing. I am angry! The attorney and others advocating for Leroy Hendricks kept trying to compare sexual predator housing to the housing of the mentally disabled or the elderly. Hendricks is both, but he also is categorized as a violent sexual predator.

Do not try to tell me (a mother of three) that a group home for this sexual predator, or others like him being moved into our community, is the same as a group home for, say, adults with Down Syndrome (which would be worth advocating). People, we are not talking about just the mentally disabled; we are talking about vile human beings who have the distinct desire to rape our children!

In the courtroom this week they kept saying that they did not believe Hendricks to be a threat while he was in this facility. This facility is called sexual predator transitional housing because … it is just that, transitional. This is the sixth phase of the sexual predator program. Transitional means that this housing will aid Hendricks and others like him to transition back into our community.

I am not targeting Hendricks alone. I am appealing to all those involved to realize that this type of housing would be a detriment to our community. It is up to us, as a whole, to stand up and shout “We do not want this program in our town.”

Missi Pfeifer,

Lawrence