By AP/KWMU
Jefferson City, MO – A judge says the state's list of suspected child abusers violates the Missouri Constitution.
Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan says the list doesn't adequately protect the rights of people who may have been accused, but never charged or convicted.
His ruling concerns a case involving employees of Heartland Christian Academy, a non-denominational school in northeast Missouri.
In 2001, school founder Charles Sharpe and three employees were placed on a registry of suspected child abusers by a Division of Family Services officer. The listing was because the four had paddled two children.
Neither Sharpe nor the other employees were convicted of child abuse. But requests to remove their names from the state-maintained registry were rejected during an administrative procedure.