Curfew Enforcement To Begin Thursday

If you're 17 or younger, the Columbus mayor's office says you should be in by curfew because, "You can still text your boo from home."

But you can't send text messages to your boo from the "curfew center" at the Downtown YMCA because authorities will keep your cell phone while you're there waiting for your parents to pick you up.

That and four other reasons to be in by curfew appear on an informational card being sent to schools this week. Columbus schools students designed the cards, which outline the consequences of disobeying the curfew.

On a first offense, police will haul curfew breakers to the YMCA Downtown for detention.

"It will be safe," said Don Heard, executive director of the YMCA's Juvenile Justice Program, of the center. "But we're not here to entertain them."

He said that when the curfew breakers get to the YMCA, their cell phones and other goods will be confiscated and not returned until their parents or guardians pick them up. They will then be taken into one of three classrooms where they will talk to an administrator about where they were and what they were doing out so late.

Administrators want to identify any issues the child might be having at home. For instance, a runaway would be put in contact with the Huckleberry House shelter, Heard said. When parents arrive, they also will be interviewed to try to identify possible problems.

Although newspapers, magazines, textbooks and general reading books will be available, there will be no television, he said. Heard and Mayor Michael B. Coleman expect 20 to 30 children will be brought to the center at any time during the night.

Coleman held a news conference at the center yesterday to draw more attention to the curfew.

If a parent or guardian doesn't arrive to pick up the curfew breaker by 8 a.m., Franklin County Children Services will take custody of the child.

The after-curfew classrooms are usually used for the YMCA's program for students who are suspended from school. These students go through a routine similar to the one for curfew breakers, including one-on-one counseling.

The rooms have security cameras and telephones, and the walls are plastered with inspirational movie posters as well as posters of prominent black Americans, including Louis Armstrong, Colin Powell, Arthur Ashe and Sojourner Truth.

The 34-year-old curfew law requires kids younger than 13 to be home an hour after sunset and those 13 to 17 to be home by midnight. The curfew lasts until 4:30a.m.

The crackdown will continue on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights from Thursday through Aug.24.

"As of that date, I want people to be home," Coleman said. "I want everyone to know we're going to do this, and act accordingly."

June 02, 2008