The DC City Council is back at it again, this time it is a bill introduced by Councilmember Wells which would hold parents responsible if their kids (13 and under) are out after 10 p.m. unsupervised.  After the curfew extension got defeated this is a change of tactics to achieve a similar result.  But under this system parents will be assumed to be negligent if their kids are out after 10 and child protective services will open an investigation of them which could lead to taking the kids away.

Most of the people testifying that day opposed this bill, and they had plenty of good arguments and statistics making the case that this bill is harmful to youth, damaging to families and could end up burdening low income families the most.  I tried to cover an argument no one else was addressing.  Enjoy:

I believe we need to really examine some fundamental questions in this discussion.  To really decide what is or is not good parenting, we need to decide what makes a good person.  How do we define a good citizen?  How do we define a good human being?  For much of American history we have included some notion of independence, self-reliance and responsibility into that definition.  We judge a person to be an adult when they are competently able to make responsible decisions and manage their affairs sensibly.  Those individuals who do not make responsible decisions are the true reason we are here today discussing the safety of youth.  The lack of a safe, stable, and healthy environment stems – at some point – from people not behaving as responsible parents, citizens and community members.

Therefore the goal of parenting is to raise children to be self-reliant, responsible adults.  This bill is detrimental to that objective.

Good parenting involves teaching kids to make good choices, not simply constraining the choices they are allowed to make.  It is a grave error to assume that sheltering youth from the world will better prepare them for it.

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July 05th 2007 Posted to Issues

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