Registered sex offender charged with trying to enter a Wake County high school
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Garner police arrested a registered sex offender after visitor system flagged him.
- State law bars registered sex offenders from schools..
- Wake County installed Verkada visitor checks after review; system flagged three matches.
Garner Police have arrested a registered sex offender and charged him with illegally being at Garner Magnet High School.
Court records show Mariano Navarro, 48, of Garner, was arrested Wednesday on a charge of felony sex offender unlawfully on premises with children. State law prohibits registered sex offenders from being on any school campus.
Court records and the state’s sex offender registry show Navarro pled guilty in 2015 on a charge of indecent liberties with a child. Navarro was released from the Wake County jail after posting a $15,000 bond.
Person escorted off school campus
Navarro isn’t mentioned by name, but Garner Magnet High Principal Matt Price notified families of the arrest.
“The individual came to our front office on Monday,” Price said in the message to families. “We require anyone entering our school to scan their driver’s license and check in through our visitor management system. The system flagged the individual as a registered sex offender, and our School Resource Officer escorted the individual off campus.”
Price said the school immediately contacted the Wake County school system’s security department and local law enforcement when they learned Navarro was on campus. This led to an investigation and Wednesday’s arrest.
Price didn’t say why Navarro was on campus. But the Wake County school system said Navarro is not a parent at Garner High.
Visitor system flags sex offenders
Navarro appears to be the latest sex offender to be stopped from visiting a Wake County school by its visitor management system.
Since 2023, visitors to Wake County schools and district office buildings have had to sign in using the Verkada Visitor Management System. The system searches databases such as a national sex offender registry to flag whether certain people shouldn’t be allowed on campus.
According to Wake school records, three confirmed sex offender matches were found last school year out of 1 million people who signed into the visitor system.
The visitor management system was installed after a security consultant hired by the school system recommended taking steps such as standardizing how all schools handle visitors.
Wake used a state school safety grant to purchase the visitor management system. Critics such as Republican state Rep. Erin Paré said the district should have used the state funding to get more school resource officers.
This story was originally published December 4, 2025 at 2:23 PM.
