ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, June 17, 1996 TAG: 9606190007
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: READER'S FORUM
TYPE: LETTERS
Get tougher on violators
I THOUGHT we had curfew laws on the books at a local level. Why add more when they don't obey these now?
What we need are harsher penalties that are enforced for kids and parents! Of course, by the time the appeals are finished, the kids will have kids who will have kids. TOM S. FOX JR. SALEM
Restrictions trample rights
NO. STRICT curfews for teen-agers are not a good idea! Curfew is an unconstitutional, nonenforceable crime against youth by curmudgeons.
ERNEST F. REYNOLDS
ROANOKE
They'd help curb moral decline
CURFEWS are a good regulation for certain age groups.
Adults and children alike have unprecedented opportunities for activities outside the home. Children, adolescents and young adults experience peer pressure to participate in activities that didn't exist a generation ago. Certain age groups of children and young adults need rules to help them develop their standards of discipline. Parents need assistance from people who are in contact with their children while they're away from home, and who can be "surrogates" to help enforce these rules.
All sorts of activities and "nonactivities" that young adults believe they must participate in can run late into the night and early morning: dances, clubs, parties, professional sports events and just "hanging out." It's not the "in thing" to be at home.
Parents of young adults are frustrated by their children's independence. Parents find it difficult - in some cases, virtually impossible - to influence their children's dress, activities and schedules. Celebrities and role models like Madonna and Dennis Rodman promote an "in-your-face" attitude. In some cases, parents are powerless to impose standards on their children without help and some means of monitoring their activities while they're away from home.
A reasonable curfew would help parents by establishing a set time to be off the street and providing outside monitors of their children's activities in public places. Proprietors of clubs, organizers of dances and parties and law-enforcement personnel would identify young people on the street after a certain hour, send them home, and perhaps impose a punishment.
A curfew regulation must be reasonable in applicability and needs to have appropriate punishments for violations. The age limit needs to be reasonable. The time should vary according to day of the week. The curfew needs to be extended or even suspended for certain activities, such as proms and events such as Festival in the Park.
Record-keeping should have sunset provisions. Records should be kept for a set time, then destroyed for minor offenders. A record of a small number of curfew violations shouldn't affect an individual's life indefinitely. However, habitual offenders should be monitored longer.
I have the intuitive sense, though not the documented data, that problem and at-risk young people would be likely violators of a curfew. A curfew could be an additional means to put pressure on these people to develop good social habits and discipline.
Punishment should progress from a written warning (sent to a parent or guardian) for a first offense to increasingly severe measures for repeat offenders. Punishments could range from exclusion from certain establishments or a requirement to perform community service, such as work in public libraries and picking up trash, to substantial monetary fines.
Some will fight a curfew as an infringement on one's rights. I can hear the American Civil Liberties Union's protests already. However, all rights have related responsibilities. Rights must be used appropriately. I believe everyone, especially when young, needs rules and an appropriate enforcement mechanism to help develop good moral values and personal discipline. People need these values and self-discipline to be good parents, productive employees and law-abiding citizens.
Some parents need additional incentive to enforce appropriate rules on their children. Government cannot legislate morality and good social values, but it can give them a little nudge. Degradation of moral and social values is an underlying reason for the high rate of pregnancy, single-parenthood, drug use, smoking, alcohol abuse and crime among young people.
Having self-discipline to do what's right rather than doing the "easy thing" or "what everybody else is doing" is central to a moral society. A curfew is a small but worthwhile step in the right direction.
VERN DANIELSEN
ROANOKE
We had one, way back when
YES, I think that a curfew would be good thing. I'm 67 years old, and when I was 10 years old, we had curfews. We had to be off the street at 10 p.m. If we were caught, we went to the detention home.
MYRTLE TOLLEY
ROANOKE
LENGTH: Medium: 96 linesby CNB