A startling error was uncovered in a Channel 6 News Fact Finders investigation. A loophole allows a handful of sex offenders to live close to Omaha schools despite a city ordinance requiring they move 500 feet away. One parent is determined to put more distance between her kids and a sex offender.

It may be recess, but Julia Dagaza was calculating distance. “Registered sex offender here, kids right here well within 500 feet.”

The city ordinance says no sex offender who has a high risk of recidivism can live within 500 feet of a school, but that isn't defined on the state registry so the measurement means nothing for enforcement in Omaha.

“We have an ordinance that restricts certain people, but those people don't exist by definition anymore,” says Omaha City Prosecutor Marty Conboy. “There is no way to define that group of people.”

Before discovery of the loophole, police arrested three sex offenders for living within 500 feet of a school. To measure the distance from where a sex offender lives and a school, start at the property line.

It’s within 50 feet of Cather School at 139th Street and West Center Road, but the charge of living too close to a school has been dropped, along with charges against two others who attorney Stu Dornan represents.

“They are not predators so they shouldn't have to be restricted from where they choose to live and carrying on the rest of their lives.”

Julia is leading a Facebook push, asking the City Council to cross out the line that will put the 500-foot-restricton back in force. “The intent is not to further persecute the sex offender. The intent is to protect the children and change the law to do so.”

Julia knows a registered sex offender has rights after paying his debt to society, but she believes when in come to protecting kids, any sex offender needs to keep his distance.

A proposal will be introduced to the City Council at the end of the month. There will be a public hearing in March before the council's final vote.