Beltway Area Indymedia

ublic roundtable on Tuesday, July 3, that he is considering a bill to declare parent5s of "children" who are "found" outside after 10 PM guilty of perental neglect. This could mean city custody until age 21 for a 17 year old out at 10:30 PM if passed.

Almost nobody else at the roundtable was supportive of curfews according to the Washington Post article on the subject. Instead, residents want things like longer rec center hours-NOT challenges to custody of teens over late hours! In particular, parents who work nights would face dire threats if their teens were't obedient "leave it to Beaver" types.

Of course, this would apply only to DC teens as DC child custody laws do not apply to out-of-state parents, much like those VA traffic "fees" for license renewal after traffic tickets.

The proposal does not define "child," so by default this would be a curfew all the way to age 18. It does not define "found"-does this mean arrested? Does it mean recognized by cops? floowed home?"

Exactly what is Tommy Wells trying to do to DC parents and youth-does he want to sent kids to Oak Hill for breaking curfew?