Letourneau's Freedom Restricted -- Former Highline Teacher Begins 3-Year Treatment As Sex Offender

She's traded her red jail coveralls for street clothes and her former cell at the Regional Justice Center for a residence on a street of trim older homes near Seward Park.

With her six-month jail sentence over, Mary Kay LeTourneau is free, but not without restrictions. She now begins a court-ordered, three-year treatment program and must live with the label "sex offender."

Yesterday, Seattle police assessed LeTourneau's "risk level," according to state guidelines, and placed the former Highline School District elementary teacher at Level 2, which means she is considered a moderate risk to reoffend.

Level 3 offenders are determined to be the most dangerous and require police to hold community meetings to alert the public. Level 1 offenders don't require any neighborhood notification.

Level 2 means police will distribute fliers with LeTourneau's photo, crime information and her approximate address.

"This is a sensational neighborhood," said resident David Myre, 73, who wasn't worried about his new neighbor.

"I don't see any problem," Myre said of LeTourneau. "I hope she's rehabilitated." But, he said, it's especially important that she be kept away from children for now.

In a community with mom-and-pop stores and family restaurants, where yellow school buses are as familiar sights as the playgrounds that surround nearby neighborhoods, 38-year-old Clay Borella understands why parents would worry.

"If I had kids, I would feel pretty strong about it one way or the other," he said. ". . . I feel she made a pretty big mistake."

That mistake swayed police to place her as a Level 2 offender.

"What put her over the top (to a Level 2 status) was that she was in a position of trust," said Detective Bob Shilling.

Last August, LeTourneau pleaded guilty to the rape of a 13-year-old former student, whom she had known since he was in her second-grade class. King County Superior Court Judge Linda Lau sentenced her to 180 days in jail and gave her a 7 1/2-year suspended sentence.

The sentence provisions included having no contact with the boy - whose baby she gave birth to last May - and enrolling in sex-offender treatment under the state Special Sex Offender Sentencing Alternative (SSOSA) program.

"SSOSA is an excellent program," said Dr. Gordon Arthur, director of the sex-offenders treatment program at Twin Rivers Correctional Center. "It serves the public very well. . . . It takes low-risk offenders and holds them responsible for their behavior, while still ensuring they can still support their families."

There are 130 sex-offender treatment providers listed under SSOSA, and LeTourneau will begin therapy with a psychologist.

Under the court order, LeTourneau's therapy will be highly structured and every part of her life - from her sex life to her work life - will be up for review by the psychologist, Terry Copeland.

Under Lau's guidelines, LeTourneau is required to:

-- Not date or have a relationship with anyone who has minor children.

-- Disclose her "sexual deviancy" to potential sex partners and inform the psychologist of any plans for sexual activity.

-- Bring her significant other to the therapy sessions.

-- Not become pregnant again.

-- Have no contact with the victim, or unsupervised contact with her four children by her estranged husband. She may have contact with her baby if Copeland allows it.

-- Bring in her "support system" to meet her therapist.

-- Maintain employment or volunteer work and inform the supervisor of her sexual-deviancy status.

-- Pay for the treatment herself and any related counseling.

She also is required to take medication and undergo therapy for a bipolar disorder, which is a chemical condition of the brain that subjects its sufferers to wild mood swings and erratic behavior.

According to a spokeswoman in Copeland's office, the contract LeTourneau signed is standard for sex-offender treatment and has no atypical requirements.

If LeTourneau adheres to the guidelines set by Copeland and the court, her sentence could end Aug. 15, 2000, when she is to come before the court again. If she has not complied, Lau could then extend her sentence up to 7 1/2 years - the time she would have served if she had been sent to prison.

Of the 1,065 registered sex offenders in Seattle, 17 are female.

Seattle Times staff reporter Christine Clarridge contributed to this report.