Daytime Curfew Clamps Down on Rights of Parents, Students

Earlier this year, I authored a resolution against daytime curfews that was unanimously approved by the board of the Orange County Department of Education. This resolution was precipitated by pressure put on our county’s school districts and cities by unelected bureaucrats to support daytime curfews in Orange County, as well as by the concern about a larger agenda to implement daytime curfews at a statewide level.

I was influenced by these efforts, which would have negatively affected parental rights in the education and upbringing of their children. Equally important, though, is that daytime curfews are inconsistent with our values of American liberties and freedoms.

Recently, the Buena Park City Council approved a permanent daytime curfew in its city, making it illegal for school-age minors to be on public property other than schools during school hours without a government-approved exemption. Since it is impossible to judge by appearance which children do and do not have an exemption, all children become possible suspects for this newly created crime.

In adopting this ordinance, the council, unlike the Reagan administration--which issued an executive order requiring every newly created policy to take into consideration its effect upon the family--weakens the influence of the family and parents in the lives of their children.

The proponents of daytime curfews argue that current truancy laws are not enforceable and that their only “overall goal is to encourage kids to go to school.” They claim to have successfully reduced criminal activity because of daytime curfew laws. Ignored, however, is the fact that overall crime has been reduced in other Orange County cities without daytime curfew laws.

Most opponents of daytime curfews are strong supporters of law enforcement officials but disagree with the proponents on this issue. Opponents support tougher sanctions on serious or repeat juvenile crimes and increased enforcement of current laws.

By enacting daytime city curfew ordinances, proponents of daytime curfews ignore existing truancy laws. These state statutes clearly define truancy, require notification to parents of the problem and give the mother and father a chance to resolve it.

Current truancy laws also have a series of progressive penalties for minors and parents if the problem is not resolved. These include community service, fines against minors and parents, required attendance at court-approved truancy prevention programs and driver’s license suspension.

A further examination of the constitutionality of daytime curfews in terms of unreasonable search and seizure, the potential discriminatory enforcement against historically disadvantage minority youth, as well as a recent federal court ruling in a San Diego case reveal a strong case against daytime curfews.

If we simply view the issue from a pragmatic perspective, however, daytime curfews constitute at the very least a burdensome public policy. With school districts now changing to double school-day sessions and with year-round schooling becoming the norm, our children, legitimately out of school, can be detained and questioned and possibly even cited in Buena Park.

The most potentially chilling aspect of daytime curfews is that parental rights in the due process system are disregarded. Prevailing truancy laws allow parents an opportunity to correct the situation and intervene in the unacceptable behavior without having court or police involvement.

However, under Buena Park’s new daytime ordinance, cited children and their parents are immediately forced into court and face possible penalties and fines ranging from $100 to $500.

If families agree to community service, juvenile counseling and parenting classes, and if there are no more unexcused absences for the child, the court may set aside the fines and other possible penalties.

The message Buena Park proclaims to Orange County is that parental duties and responsibilities are best left to government and that parents should not be given the first opportunity to control their child’s school attendance problem.

But more important than whether or not current truancy laws are enforceable, or whether new laws need to be created, society must speak out and defend our constitutional liberties and freedoms.

What families and children really require today are not more laws and regulations but only the enforcement of current truancy laws and tough sanctions as a deterrent for juveniles committing serious or repeated offenses.

Finally, what are lacking are moral leaders for our children to model their lives after, as well as the restoration of traditional moral values in our communities. In the end, the public policies and legislation we enact will either strengthen or weaken the family unit, and what strengthens the family will ultimately strengthen our nation.