Latitudes Reading Group hosts discussion on Philadelphia youth curfew

Curfews are often associated with young teenagers and the 1950s. Yet Philadelphia currently enforces a curfew that affects even some students at Penn.

An assortment of nearly 50 Penn students and other Philadelphians gathered in a Van Pelt conference room Wednesday evening to attend a panel discussion on City Council’s recently enacted curfew law.

The event was hosted by Latitudes Reading Group, a Penn graduate student organization that hosts several speaker events on race and other sociological issues every semester.

Comprised of Philadelphia Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, professor at the School of Social Policy & Practice Toorjo Ghose and Penn State Ph.D. candidate Vanessa Massaro, the panel sought to explore the effects of the curfew on those most directly affected by it — children between 14 and 18 years old.

Curfew laws have existed in Philadelphia since 1955. But this summer, in response to clusters of violence and flash mobs throughout the city, Mayor Michael Nutter, a 1979 Wharton School graduate, resumed enforcement of that law, which was updated in October 2011.

Blackwell, the first panelist to speak, set the tone by explaining why she opposed the measure in October. As the sole dissenting member of the Council, Blackwell thought the city should have expanded extracurricular activities and worked to create additional jobs instead of devoting funds to enforce the curfew.

“They wanted to hurriedly make some move — and they made the wrong move, and they made it the wrong way,” she said.

For example, she added, parents working two or three jobs may not have the time or the means to accompany their children during curfew hours.

Massaro and Ghose focused more on the ideology behind curfews, emphasizing the paternalistic mindset of the city — taking over parents’ traditional responsibilities of watching their children — which they viewed as problematic.

“The state will become parents of these [children] regardless of the parents they might actually have,” Ghose said.

He added, “We are going to spread the state-imposed morality. That’s something we really need to question.”

One student agreed during question-and-answer, adding that children do not have enough of a voice in this discussion. She hoped that “efforts [would] be made to include the kids” in the dialogue.

“I’m glad that it got the turnout it did,” said third-year English Ph.D student Monika Bhagat-Kennedy, the co-coordinator of Latitudes.

“I’m glad that it got us out of the Penn bubble and made us aware of issues that impact the city at large,” she said.

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