Parents Outraged After Discovering Child Sex Offender Lives Next To School

COSTA MESA (CBSLA.com) — Parents are outraged after discovering that a convicted child sex offender lives directly adjacent to their kids' high school campus.

Robert Harrington, 74, served five years in prison after he was found guilty of molesting two boys in the 1990's. The former Estancia High School volunteer football coach had lived in his Mesa Verde house prior to the conviction, and moved back into the residence upon his release.

A single fence is all that separates his property from what is now Early College High School, which was established at the site in 2006.

Students, parents, and school board officials alike were reportedly unaware of who Harrington was, until he began complaining in October over soccer balls being kicked over his fence. Police say that Harrington threatened school security guards, and it was at that point that his history was brought to light.

Upon this discovery, the school district took immediate action to block his view of the campus and its students, by erecting a new, green barrier.

"Any time when you learn there's a registered offender behind a school site, there's concern, but we took prompt corrective action to make sure to keep kids safe," school board trustee Katrina Foley said. "We put up the backstop so that there would be no possibility of being able to peer into the school, and that we could limit any interaction."

About the same time Harrington started complaining about the soccer balls in his yard, school officials were receiving reports that he had been leaning on his fence, staring at children who were playing on the campus' field.

While, at the time he was released, no law existed in the books about where registered sex offenders could live, parents say they can't believe he is still allowed to live in the house, which now neighbors a K-12 school.

"I don't care if he built the house with his own two hands, and blood, sweat and tears," one parent said. "I think he should not be close to a school. Especially considering he worked at a high school, and it was high school kids that he abused."

The school board likewise is inquiring as to how he can legally continue to live at the residence.

"We're also still struggling with getting a definitive answer why he can live there," a district official said. "What we have been told is that it is because this was not a K-12 campus at the time of his release."

Students, meanwhile, say they simply avoid the area near his fence while they are at school.

"I'm not worried, I stay away from that area," student Morgan Davies said. "I know that we have to be professional and that we don't provoke him anyway."