Driving parental responsiblity

Gazette Editorial Baord

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Too many children and adolescents getting into trouble with the law aren't receiving enough parental supervision, some Cedar Rapids residents are telling city officials. Police Chief Greg Graham, in response, last week asked the city's Public Safety Committee to draft an ordinance to hold parents and guardians more accountable for their children's actions.

---- We think the idea has merit if it leads parents to become more involved with their children's lives - not just punish and fine them.

---- The proposal goes like this: After a youngster commits a first offense, parents receive a warning letter from police. After a second offense, the parents could be required to take a parental skills class. And following subsequent offenses, fines could be levied.

---- Such parental responsibility ordinances are found in virtually every state. Davenport has one from which Cedar Rapids can borrow elements and benefit from that city has learned.

---- A year ago, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that a section of Davenport's ordinance placing the burden of proof on parents to show they were not negligent violates their due process rights. Instead, the ordinance must outline specific behaviors that constitute parental irresponsibility, not just presume a parent was being careless simply because his or her child was arrested.

---- That's only fair. And constitutionally sound.

---- The court also wrote that there's a “reasonable fit between the government's interest to curb delinquent acts of a child and the requirement that a parent should exercise reasonable control over” the child. Thus, much of the Davenport ordinance is constitutionally OK and the threat of imposing a penalty can be seen as motivating parents to exercise better control over their children.

---- However, in Davenport, fewer than 10 percent of cases ever go to the penalty stage. Instead, at least 80 percent of parents issued warning letters have met with police to work out a plan to help the delinquent child avoid brushes with the law.

---- That should be the focus here if such an ordinance is approved: parents and police working together in the child's interest. Fines present a heavy-handed obstacle for financially struggling parents, including many single-parent homes.

---- And if many cases reach the penalty stage, it's likely a sign that the ordinance is not working for the benefit of families or the community.

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