Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 24, 1990                   TAG: 9004240176
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: MECHANICVILLE, N.Y.                                LENGTH: Medium

CURFEW STATUTE TARGETS PARENTS AND IT'S WORKING

And now that Hildreth has become mayor of this faded mill town along the upper Hudson River, Mechanicville is taking a stand against parents who cannot answer the question. It will arrest them.

The mayor, dusting off a 1915 ordinance that seems to have never been enforced, is vowing to clamp down on any parent whose child is found out and about after 10 p.m. First-time violators will be fined $25, he said, but after that they risk going to jail.

So far the threat seems to be keeping the streets clear after 10. "You could have safely shot a cannonball down Main Street last night," the mayor, a burly 43-year-old father of four, said with a touch of glee. He said he took the action to curb vandalism, noise and "general hanging out" by teen-agers.

While many towns have experimented with curfews for the young, especially around Halloween, Mechanicville's approach appears to be singular. Law-enforcement officials and civil rights advocates agreed that they knew of no other community that used a curfew law to punish parents of errant youths.

Under the law, in fact, youths who violate the curfew face no sanction at all. But to many of them, running afoul of their parents seems as dire a prospect as running afoul of the law.

"My mom said if I ever get caught, and she gets in trouble, then it'll be 10 o'clock forever for me," said Bridget McMahon, a 14-year-old ninth-grader at Mechanicville Central School, the junior high for this town of 5,300 people 20 miles north of Albany.

The law, which the police began enforcing April 16, applies to anyone under the age of 16, although the mayor said he was in favor of extending the curfew to anyone 18 and under. Each night a loud foghorn on a telephone pole that towers over the local McDonald's sounds the curfew at 10. After that, a youth had better be home.

"Or hiding, like really hiding out, in the bushes," said Lisa Marcella, a 12-year-old who said she was strongly opposed to the ordinance because 10 o'clock is "just when things are starting to happen."

Few adults in Mechanicville have objected to the law, perhaps because none has actually been arrested.

"I have no problem with it," said Diane Falco, who was slicing cheese at a delicatessen. "It's just like if you're going 45 in a 30-mile-an-hour zone. You get a ticket. If your kid's out past 10 o'clock, you get a ticket. It makes a lot of sense to me."

Still, many youths say they resent the ordinance, and the junior high's student council is considering a petition drive to get Hildreth to ease up, even if only on weekend nights. The mayor, in fact, is facing opposition closer to home.

"The law stinks," said his 13-year-old son, Kevin, who was out skateboarding with friends Wednesday afternoon. "There's nothing to do at home anyway. We just sit around and watch TV."

Just before 10 o'clock Wednesday night, Hildreth was out walking around Mechanicville's streets, trying to explain the ordinance to groups of wary youths. One asked, "What's the underlying motive of this law?"

Hildreth replied: "The point is, if a parent isn't concerned, the city is trying to find out why. I'm genuinely interested."

But many of the teen-agers seemed unconvinced. "It's just not fair," said Kristin Dyckmann, a 14-year-old eighth-grader. "If she says I can have until 10:30," Kristin said of her mother's curfew, "then what business is it of the city to say that I can only have till 10?"

And Rebecca Sellie, also 14, said the law unfairly punishes both parents and young teen-agers while leaving the real culprits unscathed.

"It's the big kids that are causing the problems," explained Rebecca. She traced most of the town's vandalism to a feud between two groups of older high school students, the skateboarders and the Headbangers. The latter take their name from the way they dance to heavy-metal music, she said.

The New York Civil Liberties Union has begun exploring the possibility of challenging the curfew law. "It's unconstitutional," said the group's executive director, Norman Siegel. "Under no circumstances should you punish the parents for the actions of a juvenile, unless you can demonstrate a clear contributory fault."

That means a parent would actually have to encourage a child to break the curfew, and even then the law would be suspect, Siegel said. And if a youth sneaks out a window late one night? "Forget it," Siegel added. "The law could never stand up in court."

But Hildreth, who ousted a 24-year incumbent last fall in a law-and-order campaign, seemed unfazed by the possibility of a lawsuit.

"If somebody wants to come up and challenge me, they should do it," the mayor said. "They can make a test case of it. They can make a federal case out of it, for all I care. But they should also come out and walk the streets some night, and they'll see that this law works."