This is why we, at the Library, ask parents to come in whenever possible with their children, especially those under 9. It is always better to have a parent there to be aware of any stranger getting near their child. At the Main, we do not allow adults to enter the Children's room without a child with them.
The one room branches can not be as selective since everyone is in the same area. However, I want to commend staff members Florence Cherico and Teodora Andrews for being on the alert.

Sonia Araujo, Assistant Library Director
Jersey City Free Public Library

Eeeeewwwww!!, Sick!!

Perv gets 6 years for lewd act in library

by Michaelangelo Conte
Tuesday May 27, 2008, 6:37 PM

A Jersey City man has been sentenced to six years in prison for masturbating in a city library in view of children as young as 7 and for failing to register as a sex offender, officials said.

"We can't tolerate perverts in a place where children are just trying to engage their minds," Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor John Mulkeen said of John Francis Kennedy, 49, who was sentenced Friday in Superior Court. The case was prosecuted by Assistant Prosecutor Ryan Mahony.

On Feb. 4, Kennedy pleaded guilty to sexual assault by contact and admitted masturbating in the Jersey City Free Public Library's West Bergen branch on West Side Avenue on Dec. 29, 2006 in the presence of children, said Mulkeen. Kennedy was spotted by library staff members and told to leave and he was arrested a short time later, said Mulkeen.

Kennedy has prior convictions for sex offenses in California and in New Jersey, Mulkeen said, adding that on Friday he was also sentenced for failing to register as a sex offender under Megan's Law, Mulkeen said.

Masturbating in the presence of a child under 13 years old is considered sexual assault by contact under New Jersey law even when there is no actual physical contact, Mulkeen said.

Kennedy was in prison in New Jersey from Oct. 15, 2004 to Aug. 28, 2005 on convictions for lewdness and two counts of failing to register as a sex offender, state corrections officials said.