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At the beginning of 1997 , Janie Levine Hellyer saw what was coming down the pike around the states and wrote:
Truancy, Curfews and Our Response

Will Shaw of Virginia Home Education Association wrote, “The Town Council of Front Royal, Virginia recently passed a day-time curfew to go along with its long-standing night-time curfew. The proposed ordinance was strongly opposed by homeschoolers. It passed anyway, with some modifications that exempt homeschoolers. But it leaves all minors, including homeschoolers, guilty until they prove otherwise. That is, they must satisfy the local constable that they are homeschoolers.” He went on to say that this curfew is tied to public school days and hours to address what is nearly a non-existent problem in their community: daytime juvenile crime.

A Chicago mother told us about the daylight curfew proposals in her community, then states “I believe that the curfew restrictions are an absolute violation of rights. My daughter now attends a private school with different days off than the public schools. Curfew laws would restrict her from walking downtown for ice cream or groceries during the school day.”

While many communities have listened to homeschool families and private schools and have made exemptions, some have set into place regulations that affect every school-aged child. In Tulsa, OK, the situation has already confronted one homeschool family and has the potential to affect all families, regardless of where their children are being educated. Oklahoma is the only state in the union that has a constitutional amendment making homeschooling a “right.” The burden of proof falls to the state when they accuse a family of not providing an education to their children.

I’m grateful that Ms. Hellyer was paying attention in ‘97.  Another homeschool advocate was paying attention too.  A year later, another forward looking mom Mary McCarthy wrote:

Nighttime Curfews or You Wanna Do What to my Kid?

Last July 10, my local weekly newspaper carried a front page article about the efforts of the local PTA and police to institute a curfew on the those under 18 between 10 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. Touted as a way to prevent trouble from occurring and not as a punishment, it would protect our young people from being “exposed to drugs, criminal activity and other” (unspecified) “threats to their physical and mental health.” The Mayor offered these comforting words, “There are provisions. It’s not like as soon as 10 p.m. comes you’re going to be locked away and that’s it. If there is a public function and the police are notified, things will be taken care of appropriately.”

Did I read that right? My child would need to notify the police department if he was going to be out of his own home after 10 p.m.? Otherwise he will be locked away? Will the police department have the power to grant or withhold permission? I don’t think so.

Mary did a bit of research before that letter was sent.  Learn more about her sources in the article.  She decided her best bet addressing the concern was to write a letter.

I wrote my letter from the standpoint that I am a taxpayer and that if the Borough arrested or detained a youth for curfew violation it could very well be sued for violating the youth’s Constitutional rights, including their civil rights. As a taxpayer I would end up paying the financial penalties of such illegal actions. It avoided my having to personally attack the Mayor, the Council, the Borough, the PTA, the police department, and any individual who was pressuring the Council to enact the curfew. It also enabled me to avoid taking a stand against political pressure from the White House.

Mary’s research led her to various court cases and other background evidence that she used in her approximate 400 word letter to the editor.  The curfew was dropped, because the town leaders recognized “ an improvement with our police patrolling the streets.”

Just over 10 years later, the school administrators are begging city councils and municipalities for daytime curfews, along with city employee use to perform truancy officer duties.  Many homeschool communities in several states are contesting the problem.  Texas is one example.

My home state of Illinois have seen daytime curfews grow, along with related “community-based support and service”.  Sometimes that meant store clerks harassing homeschoolers while out during “school hours”.  Particularly since a 2006 state law passed specifying municipalities and counties can pass curfews to enforce school attendance.   This portion of Mary’s article below touched me and I looked up Reverend King’s Birmingham Jail thoughts.

I don’t know if it was my letter that turned the tide but it couldn’t have hurt. While researching this issue I found a quote from Martin Luther King’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail.” In it he wrote, “An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself.” Good point.

I included that thought in a letter that I wrote about curfews.  Our area didn’t have local daytime curfew passage, but I could see a growing infringement on Illinois families’ freedom of movement during ’school hours’.   Rockford was one school district that was using the mayoral influence to push through daytime curfew.  Much to my shock, the Rock River Times contacted me and asked if they could use my letter as a guest column. I gratefully accepted the offer, and here’s an excerpt from my letter to the editor turned column.

I would have to agree with Deputy Chief Lindmark that “homeschooling was really not a problem.” But this ordinance made it a problem for homeschoolers every time they are stopped to be “verified.” Does verification mean a trip home in the back of the police car? The school office has the name, phone number and address of truant public school students. But yet, the fundamental right of free movement to participate in legitimate activities isn’’t possible for all students from 7-17 years of age in Rockford now.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said these words about some civil rights many years ago in a letter from a Birmingham jail. It seems fitting now regarding kids’’ basic rights, without negating the racial struggle of that time.

“”An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself.””

Mary made me look a little further, and find some more truths to the issue of justice.

She also mentioned that despite the campaign to protect against the “threats to their [children's] physical and mental health“, her “son’s mental and physical health seems to be intact.”  I’m happy to say that the lack of a curfew in our area has not affected my kids adversely either.

Be inspired and get that bureaucratic irritation out of your system in a productive way.  Write that letter of protest or information. Write it now.  You now have the opportunity to write it here.  Come on in!  The water’s fine.

Submitted by Susan Ryan