teen curfews
henry williams
Two Sides
In early march 2014 a high schooler from New Jersey named Rachel Canning sued her parents for giving her a curfew. On the other hand parents believe that kids should not be allowed to party all night while they were supposed to be studying for their SATs.
Curfews can allow minors to stay up only until 10 PM.
In some places, curfews are permitted.
Kids go past their curfews and can get into serious trouble.
Curfews vs No Curfews
Curfews are better. With curfews, no more kids will become involved with violent crimes because they have been forced to stay out no longer than ten o'clock.
I think kids should have a curfew. It gives the kids a sense of when the nice quiet evening turns into sneaky crimes and drug dealing in the black of night. Katie Leslie, a writer for the Atlanta journal believes that curfews lower teen crime rates and protect teens from danger. Another teenager from Atlanta, Georgia named Danielle Bell, says that nine out of ten of her friends stay past their curfews because they want to get in trouble. I used to think that kids shouldn't have curfews, because the you should be able to choose whether you want to get in with the wrong crowd. Actually, all kids shouldn't end up like that, and we'd have a future generation of drug-less citizens.
Curfews aren't always perfect, though, they can be bad. Nazis used curfews to discriminate Jews during World War II, and curfews were also used to discriminate African-American during the time of the Jim Crow laws. Curfews can be harmful and dangerous in some situations. For instance, some hostels lock you out of the building, forcing you to sleep outside which cold nighttime temperatures give chances of hypothermia, and possibly exposure to violent nighttime crimes. In baseball's American League, the curfew rule for many years decreed that no inning could begin after 1 A.M. This meant games had to be postponed until the next day, and fans had to either miss the game or skip work to see the game. At a few airports, curfews force planes not to fly during certain times of the night to not disturb nearby residents. Thus, passengers get delayed until the next morning.
Summary
Overall, I think having curfews would be better. Having curfews would reduce violent teen crimes and possibly lead to future generation of non-violent people. Taking away curfews would give freedom to teens and give them a sense of what the real world is like.
I was surprised when I learned that curfews can do bad things. I didn't know that curfews were policies in cities, and it was illegal to go past your curfew. I was also surprised when I realized that a teen would sue her parents for giving her an curfew!
Ending
I haven't changed my view on curfews, but now I feel that curfews are mandatory, not a special time that teens parents' assign them to be back by. I was intrigued with how much more interesting this was than I though it would be.