The Roseville Daytime Curfew
I'm continuing to take much heat for my stance on the Roseville City Council 'daytime curfew'; I like it - and many of my core listeners are very upset with me for saying such.
Here are there arguments against such a city ordinance:
- Parents and citizens are upset that their child's name will appear on a list if they are found in public, during school hours. The Police will run a check on their education status, and confirm that they are not truant. This list, say parents, is a violation of the students rights.
- The new ordinance puts the burden of proof upon the student. Bobby and Sally have to prove that they are not truant, but parents believe this is illegal search and seizure tactics upon the young.
- The state dislikes home education, and home schooled students. There is fear that this new ordinance will be used to catalogue the home schooled children in the city, and be used against their educational choices in the future.
- Upon speaking with CRI, schools already have a list of truancy abusers, why do they need new truancy laws, and wider/deeper inspection when they are afforded a list to work off of for follow up and investigations? (Well, maybe the current standards aren't working?)
- Some believe this to be a violation of the students (minors) Due Process Claus of the 14th and the 5th Amendments to the Constitution.
Alright, so we have some fear of "Big Government" here, making a list and checking it twice...but what are the advantages of such a new ordinance in Roseville? I believe there are some benefits that the 'fear mongering' has ignored. Benefits that may save our children's lives when they make a 'peer-pressured' decision to play hooky for a day.
- Much of this is in direct response to the immediate dangers of truancy, leaving the open campuses for the mall, the parks and the community areas without parental notification and adult supervision puts the 'minor' in an immediate disadvantage for those who are up to no go, fellow students and adults included.
- What about child abductions? Do we really want peer pressure to guide these minors off of the school grounds for the day, offering themselves to any child molester or worse, to snatch and run with Bobby and Sally? Isn't it better to have the police ask, versus ignore?
- What about gang violence, drug trafficking, even the new Meth Labs that are operated inside of our neighborhoods. Shouldn't the law enforcement have the responsibility to check Bobby and Sally for proof that they have permission to be out of school during school hours? This is a Constitutional violation?
- As it relates to "parental consent", here we have parents demanding (and I agree) that they be notifies 'if' their children are taken off of the school grounds for medical procedures, but here we are concerned about their 'right' to confidential and private "hooky"?
Com'on folks, we look a bit hypocritical...I don't see the sky falling on this one. In a community like Roseville, where the affluent treat their kids like rock stars, a little discipline while reminding them that they are still 'minors' (children) is not a bad thing.
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