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| Date: From: Subject: | 8/15/2008 3:59:25 PM Home School Legal Defense Association Wyoming --More Action to Oppose Daytime Curfew |
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====================================================================== From the HSLDA E-lert Service... ====================================================================== August 15, 2008 Wyoming--More Action to Oppose Daytime Curfew Dear HSLDA Members and Friends: A number of families attended the Rock Springs City Council meeting earlier this month to oppose a daytime curfew. If you haven't taken action, we need you to act to oppose this unnecessary and intrusive legislation. To learn more about the meeting and the bill go to http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/wy/200808120.asp . At the meeting, city officials demonstrated confusion about the status of homeschoolers in Wyoming. Some thought that homeschoolers had to "be in school" during the same hours as public schools. Others suggested issuing "homeschooler ID cards." City officials argued that that homeschoolers are "exempt" from the regulation since they are excused from being present in public schools. While this is true, there is no way a police officer can determine if a minor is homeschooled without accosting them--the very thing we are trying to prevent. With this curfew in place, your children could potentially 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. Minors found guilty on their first offense will be subject to a $750 dollar fine and up to six months in prison. It is the responsibility of parents and school officials to make sure that children are in school, not the police. If a minor is committing a crime, of course, they should be arrested. However, putting minors in jail or fining them for not being in school, and not other crime, makes no sense at all--especially in the United States of America. This kind of ordinance invites profiling of all kind and invites "selective enforcement" where laws are not applied equally to all. We need you to share this information with as many people as possible, and we encourage you to both attend the next council meeting and to express your opposition to the curfew to city officials. If you don't act, this ordinance will be adopted. ACTION REQUESTED Attend the second reading of this ordinance at the Rock Springs City Council meeting on Tuesday, August 19, 2008, at 7:00 p.m. The meeting will be in the City Hall at 212 D Street, in the Council Chambers. The Council will be hearing a first reading of the proposed ordinance. Please attend to express your opposition to this unnecessary ordinance. If you wish to speak, you will have up to 3 minutes. The public is invited to speak during the "petitions" portion of the meeting which occurs during the earlier part. This is the only time that the public is allowed to speak during the meeting. The reading on the proposed ordinance would occur at the end of the meeting. See the background section below to assist you in preparing your remarks. Please contact the mayor and Council president to share with them your concerns about the proposed ordinance. Take a moment also to read the ordinance. Their contact information is as follows: Mayor Timothy A. Kaumo Phone 352-1510 Fax 352-1516 Council President David Tate, Ward 4 382-1882 Give them this message in your own words: "This curfew is unnecessary (police already have the authority they need to deal with truancy issues). Furthermore, a curfew would unreasonably restrain my family's freedom and subject my children to unreasonable and unconstitutional restraint." You might also mention your concerns about selective enforcement, profiling and the severity of the punishment. There is no need to mention you are a homeschooler. 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. BACKGROUND 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 year, 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. > Twelve-year-old Jacob,* another 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. Daytime curfews interfere with the 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/docs/nche/Issues/D/Daytime_Curfews.asp Thank you for standing with us for freedom! Sincerely, Michael P. Donnelly, Esq. HSLDA Staff Attorney ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -> "I saved my entire membership fee with one discount" "When I called Liberty to find out what kind of discount we could get, they told us we would 10% off our car insurance and 5% off our homeowner's insurance. 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