Oak Harbor teen to go out of state

Associated Press

SEATTLE — A 13-year-old sexual offender from Oak Harbor is being transferred to a program in Pennsylvania because of vandalism and threats against his former foster family, state officials have decided.

"Our goal was to keep (the boy) in Washington, where he could be close to family," Todd Henry of the Children’s Administration in the Department of Social and Health Services said Tuesday.

"In light of our concerns for the foster parents’ safety and his safety, too, we believe it is best to place him out of state," Henry said. "We want to give (the boy) a chance to have a life where he can have privacy and get an education."

The boy will return to Washington state if suitable housing for him is found, Henry said.

The boy is classified as a Level 3 sex offender, one considered at high risk to commit another offense.

He will be moved from the Echo Glen juvenile detention center outside Snoqualmie to Pennsylvania at the end of the week, officials said.

He would not identify or describe the place where the boy will be staying except to say that it is not locked and will cost Washington state $13,500 a month.

The boy drew public attention in December after he completed a sentence for a sexual assault on a woman in a Snohomish County public restroom. He has also been accused of attacks on a 9-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy.

Lacking an initial foster placement, the boy spent almost three weeks being shuttled by an Island County sheriff’s deputy between a DSHS office in Oak Harbor by day and crisis residential centers by night.

He spent about two weeks at a foster home in Seabeck before being taken to Echo Glen on Jan. 31 after authorities said he made a threatening gesture with a pencil toward one of his caregivers.

Neighbors in Seabeck held meetings and protest marches. After he was moved to Echo Glen, someone poured paint inside and outside his foster mother’s car and scrawled the words "you’re next," Henry said.