Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

America was founded upon the principles of liberty and freedom written into our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. But today on Home School Heartbeat, Mike Farris, president of Home School Legal Defense Association, tells how that liberty is currently under attack.

Mike:
David Martin, a 16-year-old home schooler, was riding his bike in sunny San Bernadino, California. He was meeting some friends from the local public school for lunch. To most people, David Martin was just a kid riding a bike. To the San Bernadino police, David Martin was a criminal.

His crime? Violating the city daytime curfew ordinance which requires school-aged children to be in school during school hours. So David, with the help of Home School Legal Defense Association attorney David Gordon, headed to court to defend himself.

Fortunately, the judge in David Martin’s case had the good sense to dismiss all charges against him. The city ordinance allowed exemptions to the curfew requirement if a student did not have a regularly scheduled class at the time of the curfew violation or had permission to leave campus.

David Martin’s case fell under both exemptions since his mother had given him permission to ride his bike, and he did not have a regularly scheduled class at that time.

HSLDA is in the midst of a major battle against daytime curfews in California.

The biggest problem with daytime curfews is illustrated with the case of David Martin. Why in a free country should kids have to go to court and hire lawyers to prove their innocence to a system that assumes they are guilty? It’s a sad day when riding a bike with your mom’s permission has to be your defense in court. I’m Michael Farris.