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Sex Offenders Being Forced To Move Away From School After 2 Years

VACAVILLE (CBS13) -- A charter school in Vacaville has been up and running for more than two years, but it was just discovered that sex offenders were living nearby in the only place they say the can. Now the offenders are being told to move, which has others asking: why now?

"I feel in God's eyes that they shouldn't be persecuted anymore for it," said neighbor Robert White.

Residents at Heritage Apartments are rallying behind their neighbors, trying desperately to keep eight sex offenders from being forced to move from the Heritage Apartments.

"They paid their price. It's all done and over with as far as I'm concerned," said White.

Parole agents say the demand comes after they recently found out that Heritage Peak Charter School had set up shop in a strip mall within 2,000 feet of the complex, putting the offenders in violation of state law.

"Even though it's a very, very small school in a relatively unusual location, we did discover it does exist and it does meet that criteria," said adult parole spokesman Douglas Eckenrod.

But CBS13 has learned that the school has actually been operating at the location for more than two years, and only this month did agents find out.

Derek Shore: Does two years seem like a long time to you?

Eckenrod: When you're talking about public safety, everything is immediate and so we want to find out as quickly as possible. Again, that's why we do these reviews. Certainly we prefer to know immediately, but as soon as we did know, we acted.

Agents are unwilling to admit an oversight, but say the small school would be hard for anyone to spot. School officials with Heritage Peak admit they didn't know the offenders were that close either until parole called them.

"We don't think our students are in direct danger, but we do feel like there should be compliance with laws that are in place," said Heritage Peak Principal Paul Keefer.

But now they know, and now they want them gone. While the offenders themselves refused to speak to CBS13 for fear retribution, their landlord spoke for them.

"They have no where to live," said the landlord.

The eight offenders have until August 12 to vacate their apartments. Some are reportedly filing suit to stay while other cases challenging the laws are disputed.

Parole agents did not have an answer when we asked them how often they survey areas to check for new schools. They also wouldn't say if they will be changing how often they check as a result of this incident.

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