A crowd is expected in Oak Harbor Thursday night for a panel discussion on sexual predator prevention.

“A Community Discussion of Predator Prevention” is sponsored by the Island County Sheriff’s Office and the Oak Harbor Youth Commission. It will take place at 6 p.m., Thursday, May 31 at North Whidbey Middle School.

The event is a reaction to several serious and high-profile cases involving alleged sexual predators assaulting children in the community. This forum is aimed at educating parents and other adults about keeping children safe from sexual predators.

Sheriff Mark Brown and Lt. John Dyer with the Oak Harbor Police will facilitate the discussion; Dyer is also the president of the new Oak Harbor Youth Commission. Brown said earlier “it’s not just an Oak Harbor issue,” and welcomed all interested islanders to the meeting.

The panel will include two detectives who specialize in investigating sex crimes, the director of the county’s domestic violence and sexual assault agency and a Department of Corrections official who assists in monitoring registered sex offenders.

Brown said the presenters won’t be able to discuss the details in any of the ongoing investigations, but he’s hoping a lot of people will attend to learn about how sex predators operate.