| From the HSLDA E-lert Service: |
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| Date: From: Subject: | 2/28/2011 2:13:34 PM Home School Legal Defense Association Utah: Action Needed to Oppose Provo Daytime Curfew |
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====================================================================== From the HSLDA E-lert Service... ====================================================================== Utah - Action Needed to Oppose Provo Daytime Curfew Dear HSLDA Members and friends, The Provo Municipal Council will consider implementation of a daytime curfew for children ages 6-18 at their meeting on Tuesday, March 1, at 7:00 p.m. We need you to act to oppose this legislation that undermines the freedom and liberty we enjoy in the United States. While the official text of this ordinance has not yet been released, this curfew will affect the flexibility and freedom of homeschool students to be in public places during school hours. Homeschool 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. Any person who violates the ordinance could be found guilty of a criminal offense. You would have less freedom to send your 15-year-old daughter to pick up groceries or let your 16-year-old son go to music lessons across town. Please take action, as requested below, to defend your freedom. ACTION REQUESTED 1. Attend the Municipal Council meeting on Tuesday, March 1, at 7:00 p.m. The meeting will be held in the council chambers at 351 West Center Street in Provo. 2. Contact members of the Provo Municipal Council to share your concerns about the proposed ordinance. Even if you aren't from Provo, you can contact these council members about your concern since neighboring communities may get the same idea if the proposal passes in Provo. Give them this message in your own words: "This curfew is unnecessary as there are already strict laws in place to deal with truancy. Police already have the authority they need to deal with crime when and where it is being committed. Their resources should not be wasted in dealing with this issue, which is a matter for school officials and parents - not the police. Furthermore, a curfew would unreasonably restrain my family's freedom and subject my children to unreasonable and unconstitutional restraint." There is no need for you to disclose that you are a homeschooler as this issue affects all parents with children. To find contact information for members of the Provo Municipal Council or to find out who your council member is, visit: http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=10447 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. BACKGROUND A 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 were homeschooled, but he let them go with a warning that next time, they would have to prove their story in court. Two teenage California homeschooled students were out during public school hours. Both were accosted by the police. One was transported to the local truancy center and the other was ticketed. A 12-year-old California homeschooler went to the store one block from his home 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. 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. Daytime curfews interfere with parents' fundamental right to direct the upbringing and education of their children. They also 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 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 also violate the fundamental legal principle that a person is presumed innocent. These curfews are considered status offenses that you can be considered guilty just because you are of a certain age and are in a certain place. This is un-American. 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 nothing more than truancy ordinances that give police authority to arrest children simply because they are not in school during certain hours. Utah already has truancy laws that can handle this problem if they were properly enforced. Daytime curfews 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=10446 Thank you for standing with us for freedom! Standing with you, Michael P. Donnelly, Esq. HSLDA Staff Attorney ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -> Can you look at the clouds and tell the direction of the wind? An interesting phenomenon of wind is that it can blow in multiple directions at the same time, at different heights from the ground. But usually there is a prevailing wind. HSLDA watches the gusts and monitors the prevailing trends of change in the legal climate of home education. So no matter which way the wind is blowing, we're there to protect your family. 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Thank you for your cooperation. ====================================================================== | |
