Roseville Truancy Stops Here?

I remember when the city council passed this ordinance last week (Agenda item 9.1 - go to page 1154 of 1187 for the staff report to council) and thought what a no-brainer. However comma Eric Hogue reports he’s received numerous e-mails from so-called conservatives complaining this violates numerous constitutional rights of minors. Excuse me???? Constitutional Rights and minors in the same sentence??? How does that even make sense? Minors haven’t even learned what a bloody constitutional right is let alone how to responsibly exercise those rights. Truancy isn't a responsible act. Granted a lot of adults don’t know how to exercise their rights responsibly, but kids aren’t adults for crying out loud. The Constitution was written by adults to protect the god-given rights of adults to engage in adult behavior, which unless the world shifted in orbit last night, starts at age 18 officially. If we’re going to extend constitutional rights to minors, thus overthrowing that hobnail boot us horrible totalitarian parents wear, down to what age? Does a “terrible” two-year old have a right to act like a brat in public because he’s exercising his First Amendment Right to free speech? And how does this jive with that ridiculous proposal to allow students to leave campus without parental notification for medical reasons as one of Hogue's callers pointed out??? Truancy, err, excuse me, “freedom of assembly” at the mall is a constitutional right but medical appointments are not? Come on folks!! Get your arguments in tune!

Non, this is nonsense. Kids need to be in school to learn about the Constitution and the rights therein and most important – the REASONS for the Constitution - to explain it to their parents apparently. It isn’t so "ya can do whaddeva ya wants ta do." Too many people have gotten intellectually lazy and use Constitutional phrases in sound-bite arguments without fully understanding them in depth. “Well hell, that sounds good!” And, AND, what most concerns me in living in society, too many parents out there are really good at making kids (the easy and fun part!), but not raising them (the no-wimps-allowed part), so damn right I want RPD confronting kids who are running about the Galleria when they should be in class. Roseville is now a big city with growing big city problems. Which points to the staff report reasoning for this ordinance. RPD responded to numerous complaints (approx. 50) involving juveniles during the 03/04 school year, and arrested or cited an additional 39. The arrests and citations WERE NOT for truancy! Truancy is a state issue enforced by school districts and their School Attendance Review Boards (SARB) – a “lengthy process.” It isn’t up to cities and its cops to enforce state truancy laws, but they sure can say that truant kids (while they’re being digested, err, processed through the SARB system) cannot be doing within our city, ergo crimes and misdemeanors which is the object of their concern. Truants by definition aren’t going to be out of class engaging in meaningful civic business for the betterment of society folks. So-called conservatives out there, get your facts straight so you can have your arguments in tune with each other!