How old is the kid, where are they at, and what are they doing?

It’s pretty hard to prove how old kid is until they get a driver’s license, anyway. I think 9 p.m. is good for 12 and under, 10 p.m. is good for 13-16 unless at a school or youth function and under adult supervision. From 16 to 18– well, are they working until midnight at a bright,well-lit McDonalds on a non-school night, or are they cruising around with illegal alcohol until 1 a.m. committing random acts of vandalism? There is a difference.

I like the idea of a permissive curfew: if you are keeping your nose clean, talking with friends on the porch, being relatively quiet, and not being a problem, no one will hassle you. You start acting out in some way, and you get the curfew thrown at you. Isn’t that how it always has been?

I do think midnight is a good general curfew for everyone under 18 without an express productive reason to be out and about. We used to call it “pumpkin time.”

I think Teresa has an interesting idea about a “permissive curfew.” That way, if kids are just quietly hanging out with friends, no big deal. But if those kids sitting on the porch start getting loud and obnoxious, the police can be called and use the curfew law against the offenders. It’s like the “barking dog” law. The police aren’t going to cruise the neighborhood with the window down listening for barking dogs. But if someone calls with a complaint that the damned mutt next door hasn’t shut up for the past three hours, well, the cops have a tool to work with to get the owner of the offending dog to comply. Maybe curfew regulations could fall under that “nuisance law” category.

Then, again, maybe we do need a strict curfew. Plain fact of the matter is that there are a lot of kids who have essentially no parental supervision. They are the ones most likely to be in violation of a curfew and also the ones most likely to get into trouble. It’s sad that a law has to be passed to deal with the situation, but someone has to play “parent” to these kids. God knows the real parents have abdicated all responsibility.

For my kid, it is what I say it is.

Government imposed curfew is like overzealous gun control laws that penalize the innocent and responsible along with the guilty and irresponsible.
Curfew as a tool for the juvenile justice system to deal with problem individuals would honor parents rights and avoid the prior restraint issue for well behaved youths.

I live in St. Charles County, I thought curfew laws were already in place here. 20 years ago, I was 15, my friend, 16 were at a pool hall on Main St in St. Charles. She lived close by, we left on Friday night around 12:00am to walk home, thinking it was only about 10:30 or 11pm. A cop stopped us and asked what we were doing, we said nothing walking home. He asked our ages and then told us to get in the car. She lived like 2 blocks away. He told us we were out past the curfew. We said “Huh?”. It’s only like 10:30 we said, no it’s past midnight. Our first thought was Oh S**t, we are late we are in trouble. Stupid us thought the cop was going to give us a ride home, nope we went to the police station. They had us crying, telling us we would be in juvenile jail until we were 17, the judge is going to throw the book at us. We were scared. Only to get a letter from the courts saying they will leave it up to the parents to decide punishment. Those cops were just using us as a source of entertainment. But really we were doing nothing wrong, I think he took us in because we were girls and it was late, more of a safety issue. If he had drove away and then something happen to us, that kind of thinking. I think curfew laws can be helpful, parents can say “Hey it’s the law, not me saying you have to be home at a certain time.” Kids shouldn’t be able to freely roam the streets without good reason, for their safety. Did I learn a valuable lesson? Yes, cops can be jerks, use you as entertainment because it’s a slow shift.

As a teacher for many years, I realized that kids these days have know where to go that they are not harassed by someone. Kids are different than adults. They always have been. When we were kids we hung out at Steak N Shake and Chuck A Burger and other places being left alone as long as you were not causing problems. I think that one of the differences are that there were no threats of weapons in those days. Today’s teenagers pose a threat to some with the constant violence that we see and read about everyday. It’s harder everyday to judge good kids from bad.

I view curfew as being about as effective as gun laws. If you want to break the law, you will. You will never stop criminals from obtaining pistols. In the same token, you will never stop kids from running around at night looking to get in trouble. Good citizens should be able to own firearms. Good teenagers should be able to stay out at night until a reasonable hour without being harassed. Fact is, you can’t keep people out of trouble that have a passion for getting into it. Judge each incident as they happen. It’s the only way to be fair to the good kids.

To Tina M of St. Charles:

The cop you think as a “JERK”, was thinking of your safety. It is a violation of the law for a person under the age of 16 to be out past midnight in City of St. Chares Missouri.

You had no idea the dangers a young girl could face while walking home at that hour in the part of town 20 years ago. Even if it was only a couple of blocks.

How do I know you might ask? I know because I have been a police officer in St. Charles for over 30 years. He most likely knew the kids all thought the juvenile court is a joke, so maybe a little fear might help save you from something that you might not like.

I remember working cases of girls being raped and boys being assaulted by drunks and perverts. There used to be a large amount of bars and taverns along N. Main and S. Second streets. There still are a lot of bars on N. Main and they can get pretty wild at night. There is no reason to be out past the curfew if you are 16 or younger. You are either looking for trouble or trouble will find you.

I ask you this question. Do you want your child out past curfew where they could be hurt or maybe something worse?

PS

We have plenty of other people to keep us entertained, not teenage girls.

Steve - If what Tina M said was true, that cop was being a jerk. There are bigger things going on, and there were 20 years ago too, in which he could have had his say and moved along or followed the girls home. Not a big deal until he made it one. AND she did reference a safety issue. Lighten up, will you?

I have no opinion on how other people should bring up their kids. But I wish I would quit getting the implied responsibility for everyone’s kids. Every “vice” law and even the megan meier case keeps placing responsibility on everyone for everyone else’s kids. Their either your responsibility or the nanny government’s…make up your minds and let me enjoy the smut and questionable substances I enjoy without harming others.

Steve, sorry to have offended you. The cop that took us in was not the same cops we dealt with at the station. They had us thinking we were going to jail for a curfew violation. We were bawling our eyes out, I had never been in any trouble before this. But I did form an opinion about cops because of that incident. No disrespect.