Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 18, 1995 TAG: 9502200004
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Roanoke's curfew requires children 16 and younger to be off the streets by 11 weeknights and by midnight Friday through Sunday.
Police refused to identify the mother to shield the identity of her 16-year-old son, but said she was a 36-year-old Southwest Roanoke resident. Knowingly allowing your child to be in a public place after curfew more than two times a year is a Class 1 misdemeanor, subject to a 12-month jail sentence and/or a $2,500 fine.
Chief M. David Hooper said the woman was arrested and released Thursday.
Courts around the country have been divided on the constitutionality of curfews on children. Kent Willis, executive director of the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said that, although the ACLU opposes all curfew ordinances, Roanoke's probably would withstand court scrutiny because of its exemptions.
According to the ordinance, teens and children can be out after curfew if they are on errands for their parents, responding to emergencies, traveling to or from work, or attending religious services or civic activities.
"We think it's a violation of the parent-child relationship," Willis said. "It's the parent who should be able to set curfew; it's improper for the state to decide when a child is old enough to stay out late."
"Even kids," he said, have a First Amendment right to freedom of association.
Because of recent favorable decisions in other cases, Roanoke City Attorney Wilburn Dibling said he's confident Roanoke's ordinance would be upheld in court. He said the ordinance has received favorable reactions since it went into effect July 31, 1992.
"This was a demand that came from the grass roots," he said. "It was a direct response to citizen demand."
A citizens' committee worked in early 1992 to update the city's old ordinance and came up with the one that City Council passed that summer.
When teens are cited under the ordinance, notice is sent to their parents and schools, Hooper said.
After a child receives two citations for curfew violations within a year, authorities warn the parents that criminal charges may be placed. The boy whose mother was charged in this case had been cited five times.
by CNB