“Clark County is basically a family community,” wrote Justice Jonathan Huber in an ordinance he is proposing that would set a curfew for minors in Clark County. “Parental responsibility for the whereabouts of children is the accepted norm by a substantial majority of the community.”
Huber handed out the ordinance to fellow Justices of the Peace at last week’s Quorum Court meeting, not to consider it for that meeting, but for the court’s regular meeting in April. He said he was suggesting the country-wide curfew to curb juvenile truancy during the daytime and suspicious activity during the nighttime.
Justice Vanilla Hannah asked Huber if an increase in juvenile misconduct spawned the proposal. Huber, who is also an attorney, said he recently represented a juvenile in truancy court in Saline County, which was “packed” with similar cases. “It can’t hurt — it can only help,” he said of the ordinance, noting that he based it on Saline County’s recently passed curfew laws. “It will put the liability and responsibility back on the parents” for truant juveniles.
Hannah, who is also a teacher at L.M. Goza Middle School, said she would like to see a daytime curfew because of schoolchildren “roaming around” during school hours.
The proposed ordinance states that any juvenile 17 or younger shall not remain or congregate in public places such as roads, streets, shopping centers, parking lots, parks, playgrounds, public buildings and “similar areas that are open to the use of the public” during the following hours:
During the pre-dawn hours of midnight until 5 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays;
Between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. on Sunday-Thursday; and
Between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. when public schools are in session.
There are exceptions, however, and they include when the juvenile is with a parent; a guardian who is at least 18 years old; when “engaging in the duties of bona fide employment” or traveling from home to work (or vice versa); or when traveling in a vehicle through Clark County.
The ordinance would make it unlawful for parents to allow their juvenile to be out during the curfew hours, and “it shall be no defense that a parent was indifferent to the activities of conduct or whereabouts of such juvenile.”
Penalties under the ordinance would require that parents of the juvenile pay a fine of $100 to $500 after a warning from law enforcement. Any juvenile that violates the curfew more than three times would be reported, by the sheriff’s office, to the appropriate authorities as a “juvenile in need of supervision,” and the sheriff can refer the matter to the county prosecutor and/or the Arkansas Department of Human Services.
Neither County Judge Ron Daniell nor Sheriff David Turner said they had read the ordinance Monday morning, so could not comment on whether or not they thought it was a good idea. Turner said juvenile truancy is “not that bad out in the county” because of its sparse population.
Arkadelphia Police Chief Al Harris said, “I don’t think we’ve got a problem” in the city. “People have their hangouts, as do kids in other towns. But I haven’t heard comments from my officers that would indicate a problem.”
Arkadelphia City Clerk Rendi Currey dug through files Monday morning to find an old ordinance that was passed in 1955 — when the Arkadelphia had a city council form of government — that made it illegal for minors to “loiter, loaf or wander” on streets, alleys, restaurants or any other such public place without a parent or guardian between 11:30 p.m. and 5 a.m. For any violation, the parent or legal guardian could be fined $10-$50, and any minor, “if of significant age,” could be subject to prosecution under the laws of the state and subject to the same fines.
The city of Gurdon also has put into law a curfew ordinance that prohibits juveniles from loitering during pre-dawn hours, with the exclusion of work- and school-related travel and tasks; or if the minor is under the care of an adult. Recorder/Treasurer Tambra Childres said juveniles are not allowed to be in public places after 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and after midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
Arkadelphia, Ark. —
