Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Jim Mason:
HSLDA has long opposed daytime curfew laws because they create many problems for innocent students—like the Smith siblings, who were arrested in LA. In California, private schools are exempt from compulsory attendance; so daytime curfews should not even apply to homeschooled students. But the enforcement policy for the LA curfew was too vague. Officers had no way to determine whether the homeschooled students were exempt, so they assumed the Smiths were guilty.

So HSLDA stepped in. We sued LAPD to get a court ruling that the curfew doesn’t apply to homeschoolers. The Smith case was pivotal in deciding an important question: are homeschoolers exempt from LA’s daytime curfew ordinance?

Our curfew case involving the Smith children proved to be the turning of the tide. At a hearing the city of LA held to discuss the daytime curfew policy, the Los Angeles Police Department presented a complete reworking of the enforcement policy. It directly stated that homeschoolers were exempt from the curfew and clarified how a student stopped by an officer can prove he is homeschooled. If a parent tells the officer the child is homeschooled and exempt, the officer needs no more proof.

Based on these guidelines, innocent homeschoolers wouldn’t have to worry about being arrested and assumed guilty until their curfew exemption could be ironed out in court. But Smith v. LA opened the door for even more gains for liberty. Tune in next time for more of the story. For Home School Heartbeat, I’m Jim Mason.