ASHLAND — A 66-year-old man who walked around Ashland naked during a visit to the city says he did not mean to enter a school zone when children were present last month.

Police said that Tony Cooper, a retired computer programmer, was not breaking any laws by wearing only tennis shoes while he strolled around this college town on the California border.

Cooper told The Daily Tidings newspaper that he has been a nudist for decades and has lived at nudist resorts in California and Arizona.

Before visiting Ashland, he was staying in the Bay Area in order to participate in San Francisco’s Bay to Breakers 12K race in which he ran naked, he said.

But his nude walks in Ashland upset many local residents, leading some to call for a ban on public nudity in the city.

Some parents and other community members were especially concerned after Cooper was spotted near Walker Elementary School on May 29 as children were walking home from school.

Cooper told the newspaper that he didn’t realize he was near a school and didn’t intend for the kids to see him.

“That was my mistake,” he said. “I messed up completely.”

But Cooper says people overreacted.

“I think they should all send their kids to a nudist resort or have naked day in Ashland where everyone is naked,” he said. “Then all of those hang-ups would disappear.”

Oregon does not have any laws restricting nudity, but the city of Ashland requires people to cover their genitals in the downtown area and in public parks.

Cooper told the Ashland newspaper he used to travel to project sites as a computer programmer and has continued wandering the country since he retired last year.

If he returns to Ashland, he says he will consider limiting his naked walks to after 10 p.m.