Yes, the admitted pedophile has indeed made his way up to Portland ^[1], as some predicted ^[2] (with a hat tip to former MB blogger Aaron, who’s started a new site ^[3]. )

Yes, I’m the mother of a very outgoing and friendly young daughter.

Yes, I hate pedophiles, and will do whatever I can to keep my kid safe and away from them.

But I figure enough people will be keeping a laser eye on McClellan. It’s the people you can find here ^[4] – on the Multnomah County Predatory Sex Offender notification webpage, that is – that I’m more concerned about, frankly. The ones that our local media people and vigilante justice folks won’t be stalking 24/7.

And you’d better believe that I’m a regular scanner over at Portland Maps ^[5] to see if sexual predators have moved into my neighborhood. Been there, lived through that, banded together with neighbors to let the landlord know we weren’t big on having tenants like that in his building. And yep, the guy’d given a few of us reason enough to check him out before we raised a stink…

(To find them yourself, plug in your address, then select ‘Crime’ from the top right menu, then select ‘Sexual Offenders’ to see the Google Maps layout. When you see a red teardrop – mouse over it for a photo and pertinent information.)

Finally, I talk to my kid. I keep an eye on my kid. And she knows what to do if she’s ever in an uncomfortable situation – from either a stranger or an acquaintance or (god forbid) family friend.

So – yeah, I’m less than thrilled that McClellan’s moved to town. But he’s not the only one I need to keep an eye on, by a long shot.

And I’m doing just that…