Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 7, 1994 TAG: 9404070103
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SOUTH BOSTON LENGTH: Medium
The City Council will vote May 2 whether to impose a year-round 10 p.m. curfew for teen-agers. A commission appointed to study crime suggested the curfew. Parents would be held responsible if their children break it.
The City Council fielded questions Monday night from parents who said their teen-agers should not be punished for the delinquent actions of a few.
"It should not be the city or the government telling me how to raise my child," Ernest Warren said. "It starts in the home and that's where it ought to stay."
But Laura Chaney said young people loitering around her home have become "uncontrollable. . . . We're just surrounded by people that don't ever control their teen-age kids."
Police Chief J.E. Hall, Commonwealth's Attorney John E. Greenbacker Jr. and several council members said a curfew would not make outlaws of teens coming home from late-night sporting events or other organized functions.
"What we're trying to do is put a lid on kids who are out aimlessly on the streets, with no restriction or control," said Greenbacker, a crime commission member. "There are a lot of parents out there - and I think you'll agree with me - who are not doing their jobs."
The proposed ordinance would make it illegal for anyone under 18 to "loiter, idle, wander, stroll or play in or upon the public grounds, public places and public buildings, places of amusement and entertainment, vacant lots or other unsupervised places" after 10 p.m. unless accompanied or directed by a parent or guardian.
The proposal says teens who violate the ordinance would be "dealt with in accordance with the juvenile court law," but does not specify penalties.
Before coming to South Boston this year, Hall served for 11 years as police chief in Strasburg.
by CNB