Kansas City - A metro veteran needed a job to help pay some bills and get back on his feet, but he says the opportunity to work at the Schlitterbahn water park in Kansas City, Kansas, was taken away from him after he was falsely accused of being a sex offender.
Christopher Michael Reynolds says that he was supposed to start at the water park on May 4th, but when he showed up, officials told him to leave after he was informed that he was a registered sex offender.
According to ADP, the company that conducts background checks for Schlitterbahn, Christopher Reynolds was convicted of sexual battery in Bexar, Indiana, on March 11, 2007.
But there is a big problem with the company's background check. "When this happened, I was in Iraq, serving in the Army National Guard," said Reynolds. Reynolds has a solid alibi with his military records, and the more he investigated, the more Reynolds learned about ADP's investigation.
It was a mistake that Reynolds says has some serious implications.
"I was really relying on this job to get some stuff paid off, to get back on my feet," said Reynolds, who has been out of work for months and is now living at a homeless shelter. "I came home for medical issues for PTSD and depression and have been seeing a doctor for that. When I found out I had this job, I was excited, and when I found out I lost it, I was kind of down again."
Obviously, this is a terrible thing to happen to this man. But this is what is also happening to hundreds of thousands of people across the country as a result of these sex offender registries. They are being banished from society and barred from holding nearly any job. The Courts and legislators need to be told that these sex offender registries are resulting in economic and social obstacles and burdens for all those who are trapped on these registries. They are punitive - no question about it.
