After the Now broke the story about White Rock Players' Club looking for young volunteers, despite knowing its current artistic director is a convicted sex offender, this no doubt served as a cold splash in the face for many parents.
In the pages of our newspaper, you will find many stories about wonderful people doing wonderful things. But you will also read about people in positions of trust - teachers, coaches and clergymen among them - who betray that trust by preying upon young, vulnerable people.
Ryan Mooney did just that, in 2006, when he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl while working on a high school play in another B.C. community.
A Supreme Court judge in 2009 had his name added to the sex offender registry for 20 years - until 2029.
The only reason we learned about Mooney's crime was because a Now reporter googled his name on the Internet while preparing to interview him about an upcoming play.
The theatre group did not mention it to us as it went about fishing for volunteers.
The situation is a wake up call to all parents whose youngsters are thinking about volunteering with local community groups.
Parents often think they can count on a nameless, faceless "they" to protect our children and warn us about potential dangers, real or perceived. We like to believe that somewhere in the organization exists a great protector of children to ensure nothing bad will happen to them. If a potential danger did exist, "they" would tell us about it, right?
In reality, it was little more than a fluke that enabled the Now to inform the public about Mooney. White Rock Player's Club certainly didn't, as far as we're aware. And it was beholden upon the theatre group to do so, once it put the word out it is seeking volunteers.
It's a sad reminder to all parents that we can't always count on a "they" - that when it comes to our children's safety it's entirely up to ourselves to do our own due diligence to ensure our children are not unknowingly exposed to a convicted sex offender.
That, sadly, is much easier said than done.