With the intention of providing as much protection as possible for students, faculty and staff, a bill was passed during the 2011 legislative session requiring any student or employee who is a sex offender to register not only with the parish but also the university police department.
Before the passage of Representative Jerry Gisclair’s House Bill 13, sex offenders were only required to register with the sheriff of the parish they were residing, working or going to school in. Offenders who are students are now required to register with the aforementioned entities in addition to University Police.
“What was taking place was that a sex offender could register with the sheriff of whatever parish they live in and then come to live on our campus,” Craig Jaccuzzo, chief of University Police, said. “They had so many days to register with the [Lafourche] parish sheriff telling them that they were coming in. That sheriff then needed to inform the institution. That wasn’t happening.”
Jaccuzzo, who testified throughout process of the bill passing, said the institution of this bill allows University Police to put the burden on the individual.
“If that individual fails to contact us then I arrest him…It makes the business between the University Police Department and the individual student.”
Getting this bill passed was not an easy task, Jaccuzzo said. Some institutions and law enforcement agencies were disgruntled over the added work this bill would require from university police.
“It aggravates me when I see other law enforcement executives that don’t want to be consistant or understand that, ‘hey, it just didn’t happen to you yet.'”
Students and employees who are sex offenders to do not have to pay a fee to register with University Police, Jaccuzzo said. The information is simply for public knowledge and can be accessed by visiting www.nicholls.edu/police/ and clicking the “Sex Offenders Registered at Nicholls State University” tab.
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