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Michael Leach could be your neighbor. He is a convicted child sex offender, evicted from public housing. The Investigators found out Leach now lives right next door to Forest Heights Elementary School in Gastonia.

The 6NEWS Investigators uncovered a convicted sex offender living side by side with a school. The Investigators also found out why the offender was allowed to move there, why the school wasn’t notified and why what happened could happen in your neighborhood.

Michael Leach could be your neighbor. He is a convicted child sex offender, evicted from public housing. The Investigators found out Leach now lives right next door to Forest Heights Elementary School in Gastonia.

6NEWS Investigator Jeff Sonier tried to talk to Leach.

"We wanted to ask you about living here next to the school given your record as a sex offender,” Sonier said. “Can we talk to you real quick? We'd just like to ask you a couple quick questions if we could. Can we ask you a question sir?"

"Get out of my door," Leach replied.

"We just want to ask you a question, that's all. We just wanted to find out why you wanted to live next to a school," Sonier said.

"When the children are coming to school, I have seen him on at least two occasions out in the front yard," said Deputy David Pearson, Gaston Sheriff’s Office.

But 6NEWS learned Leach was moved in for months before deputies and the school ever knew. Now the school is escorting the kids past Leach's house and cutting down the bushes near the school playground. They even took down a wall blocking the view from the school office.

"Any child that goes outside must be accompanied by an adult," Bonnie Reidy of Gaston County Schools said.

Sonier said to Reidy, “The school would like to know when these things happen."

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“Well, it would make it easier for the school system if we know.” Reidy replied.

And while the school scrambles to protect the kids from the sex offender next door, 6NEWS wanted to know why Leach's move to the home was approved in the first place, and why the school was never notified.

Court papers signed by Leach and the judge in his sex offense case originally said Leach was a diagnosed child sex offender and that his residence and place of employment had to be okayed by a probation officer. But here's where it gets confusing. Now, Leach is on a different probation for failing to register as a sex offender. And the probation supervisor said the new probation doesn't carry the same restrictions on where Leach can and can't live, even if it's next to a school.

"And we don't like him living there, to be honest," said Jeff Joines, probation supervisor.

"There's no obligation for you to report to a school that a sex offender just moved in next door?" Sonier asked.

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There's another thing the probation office couldn't tell us. They couldn't explain the child 6NEWS cameras saw at Leach's house, not once, not twice, but at least three different times, being cared for by a woman at the house.

“In many instances, we do,” Joines replied. “I can't tell you whether we did or not in this case."

And here's another thing the probation office couldn't tell us about the child 6NEWS cameras saw at Leach's house, not once, not twice, but at least three different times, being cared for by a woman at the house.

"You leave. Don't come back," the woman told 6NEWS.

Sheriff's deputies saw the child at Leach's house, too.

"There was actually one standing on the front porch when we came by. And he was home, too," Pearson said.

"Are you aware of any children living in that house?" Sonier asked Joines.

"We have not seen any children there," he said.

"We have," Sonier said.

"We need to look some more then, perhaps."

And now, they're looking at 6NEWS’ video of the girl for themselves.

"Yeah, I see the child,” said Joines as he looked at the tape.

"Doesn't that represent some sort of violation?" Sonier asked.

"That would be a concern to us, and we would investigate that,” he said. “You've brought new evidence to us which, if it pans out, we're certainly going to investigate it and report it back to the court."

In fact, the probation office also said that since seeing 6NEWS video of the child at the sex offender's house, they've been back out there too, looking for possible violations. Meanwhile, a proposed law that would force sex offenders to live at least a quarter mile away from schools is still stuck in committee in Raleigh.