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| Date: From: Subject: | 2/12/2008 3:22:52 PM Home School Legal Defense Association Ohio--Attend Elyria City Council Committee Meeting to Oppose Daytime Curfew |
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====================================================================== From the HSLDA E-lert Service... ====================================================================== February 12, 2008 Ohio--Attend Elyria City Council Committee Meeting to Oppose Daytime Curfew Dear HSLDA Members and Friends: We need you to act to oppose a curfew in Elyria, Ohio. The City Council's Public Utilities, Safety and Environment Committee will be discussing the pros and cons of the curfew tomorrow, Wednesday, February 13, 2008, at 6 p.m. Please attend to express your opposition to this unnecessary ordinance. For more information about the proposed curfew, see http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?ID=4764 This legislation undermines the freedom we enjoy in the United States. With this curfew in place, your children could be taken to the local police station to verify who they are and that they have a valid excuse to be in a public place. Any parent or legal guardian who violates the ordinance could be found guilty of a misdemeanor. You would have less freedom to send your 15-year-old daughter to pick up some groceries or let your 16-year-old son go to music lessons across town. This problem is more than hypothetical. Even when exceptions for homeschoolers are written into the curfew law, police officers frequently presume that any school age child is truant, regardless of whether they are homeschooled. > Earlier this month, Tasha* and Brian*, 14- and 16-year-old sister and brother, were stopped by Cleveland, Ohio, police. The siblings, with schoolbooks in tow, were on their way to the library. The officer who stopped them was skeptical when they told him they are homeschooled, but he let them go with a warning that next time, they would have to prove their story in court. > Kyle* and Amy* are California homeschooled students who were out during public school hours. Both were accosted by the police. Kyle was transported to the local truancy center; Amy was ticketed. > Jacob,* another 12-year-old California homeschooler, went to the store one block from his home on February 2, 2006, to buy paper for his homeschool program. A police officer picked him up, brought him home, and cited him for violation of the daytime curfew. *Not their real names We need as many people as possible to attend tomorrow's committee meeting to express opposition to the curfew. ACTION REQUESTED 1) Attend the Elyria City Council Public Utilities, Safety and Environment Committee meeting on Wednesday, February 13, 2008, at 6 p.m. The meeting will be in the Elyria City Hall, Council Chambers, at 131 Court Street. 2)If you are unable to attend the meeting, please contact the committee members to share with them your concerns about the proposed ordinance. Their contact information is as follows: Michael J. Lotko, III, Council-At-Large, Chair 440) 322-3501 Victor F. Stewart, III, Council-At-Large, Vice-Chair 440) 284-5848 Kevin A. Brubaker, Council-At-Large 440) 366-9756 Mark F. Craig, Ward 4 440) 366-0608 Donna Mitchell, Ward 6 440) 323-9660 3)Please call homeschoolers and other freedom-loving citizens in your area to alert them to this need as quickly as possible. Every person you can reach by telephone is one person more likely to stop this un-American curfew. Tell the members of the Council that the curfew is unnecessary (police already have the authority they need to deal with truancy issues). Furthermore, a curfew would unreasonably restrain your family's freedom. BACKGROUND Daytime curfews interfere with parents' fundamental right to direct the upbringing and education of their children, especially for parents with children in small private schools who often work outside the classroom. Daytime curfews violate a minor's fundamental constitutional right to freedom of movement as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment on the public streets, highways and areas of the city without being subjected to prior governmental restraint. These curfews send a message to self-disciplined and responsible young people that the community makes no distinction between them and irresponsible adults who abuse freedom in ways detrimental to the community. Daytime curfews violate the fundamental legal principle of the presumption of innocence. This presumption is protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth and Fifth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Daytime curfews dangerously train young citizens to accept, as normal, constraints that are inconsistent with the freedom they should be educated to enjoy and use responsibly in their adult years. Daytime curfews result in violations of the minors' Fourth Amendment rights to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures. A policeman should not stop and question anyone unless there are actual facts that make it reasonable to suspect that a crime has occurred. If a policeman stops and questions a person without such facts, it is a violation of the citizen's rights under the Fourth Amendment. Daytime curfews are, in essence, beefed-up truancy ordinances. All states have already addressed the area of truancy in a comprehensive way. There is no need for new laws addressing the issue of truancy. The present laws addressing minors simply need to be enforced. Daytime curfews will result in selective enforcement. Since officers will not be stopping every juvenile during school hours to check their identities, they will be selective. This opens up the extremely dangerous potential for unequal treatment of minors based upon race, appearance, dress, etc. This type of ordinance will simply divert attention from real crime prevention programs and interfere with effective police work. Daytime curfews will likely result in registration of privately educated students with police departments with the attendant issuance of ID cards and badges. There is no evidence that daytime curfews significantly reduce juvenile crime during curfew hours. Statistics demonstrate that there is very little juvenile crime during these hours even when there is no daytime curfew. Additionally, the serious juvenile law-breaker will not be deterred by the daytime curfew. However, hundreds, if not thousands of innocent minors will suffer the inconvenience of unwarranted stops, detentions and harassment, not to mention the added cost for taxpayers for the enforcement of the curfew. For more information on daytime curfews, please see our analysis of this issue at http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?ID=2102 A strategy packet for defeating daytime curfews can be found at http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?ID=4765 Thank you for standing with us for freedom! Sincerely, Michael P. Donnelly, Esq. HSLDA Staff Attorney ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -> Is customer service an art or a science? For us, good customer service is both an art and a science -it should appeal to our members and be effective. Consider what our members say about us: The freedom HSLDA allows me to have as I homeschool is wonderful! They handle the law and I get to dedicate the time to my daughter. - National City, CA HSLDA members since 1993, our membership is just as important to us as our children's curriculum. Thank you HSLDA for all you do on our behalf! - West Valley, NY More reasons to join HSLDA... http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=1941 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ====================================================================== The HSLDA E-lert Service is a service of: Home School Legal Defense Association P.O. 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Thank you for your cooperation. ====================================================================== | |
