Be Quiet and Go Away

January 27, 2009 -- The mercury dropped below freezing as the "worst ice storm in nearly 6 years" headed toward the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex on January 27, 2009. The storm threatened to deposit up to 1/4 inch of freezing rain on North Texas roads throughout the evening. The weather service issued travel advisories, warning people to stay off the roads.

Yet, the Bedford City Council meeting went on as scheduled, forcing many citizens to brave the elements to attend the meeting. The juvenile daytime curfew issue was on the agenda that night, and the citizens of Bedford packed the council chamber, determined to make their voices heard.

Councilman Jeff Cason, who placed the juvenile daytime curfew item on the agenda, very humbly admitted that he did not do his due diligence before voting on the issue initially. He stated that he simply could not connect the dots, even after hearing the arguments made by the police chief and school district at the work session on December 16, 2008.

Cason made the point during the meeting that 60% of property taxes go to the school district, while only 15% go to the city, and that from a taxpayer standpoint if the school district was receiving that much money they should do their job and not place an added burden on the city's police resources.

Cason went on to say that what really brought this issue to light for him was his concern as a parent. He said that as a teenager he was in a work-study program, and he would drive his '57 Chevy to work. He realized that if his son were in that circumstance today, as a parent he would be concerned that his son might be stopped by a police officer during the day on his way to work and possibly given a citation for being in public. He admitted that he made a big mistake by voting for this ordinance and was seeking its repeal.

Most of the rest of the council members were not in agreement with the idea of a repeal, and the council chambers grew heated as a couple of the council members argued the issue.

One council member, Chris Brown, expressed his desire that this would become a "dead issue" and that the citizens could "put this behind them" because the council had other more pressing issues to decide. Click here to watch the video.

A second council member, Lori Nail, wondered why this issue was only coming up in Bedford. She stated that she was "puzzled" as to why the city of Euless had only one person come before them to speak about the issue, while the city of Bedford has had continuous "visitors" on the issue.

She stated that if the citizens were "truly passionate about their liberties," they would be discussing this issue with the Euless City Council as well. She did not feel that this curfew would impact anyone's liberties, and went on to say that the government gave home schoolers their right to home school and the government wasn't taking that away. Click here to watch the video.

Council member Nail mentioned that the school district approached the city asking for the curfew ordinance. She stated that if Cason couldn't connect the dots he should have sought additional information from the school district.

Cason argued that the school district did not make a compelling case to justify the need for or the effectiveness of the daytime curfew. He felt that the curfew was not the best solution to the problem, particularly since there were so many citizens concerned about their right to move about freely in society without being suspected or questioned without cause.

Council member Nail stated that "it's very dangerous when people start throwing arrows and saying we're taking away freedoms" and that citizens are "not being fair in how they're defending their beliefs."

Nail also mentioned that while there are three school entities: public school, private school, and home schoolers, the council had only heard from home schoolers. She felt that if there were a real concern, they would have heard from representatives from those other entities as well. Click here to watch the video.

What the council did not know was that there were families from all sides of the issue in attendance at the meeting that night: home schoolers, private school students, a public school parent and veteran police officer, a public school parent who is now a home schooler, a former public school teacher who is now a grandmother of home schooled children . . . all speaking in opposition to the daytime curfew.

You can imagine the comments that came from the public during the Open Forum. The overall tone of the council was very condescending, and many people objected to the council telling its citizens, whom they supposedly serve, to shut up about this issue and go to another city to voice their concerns.

The icy weather outside did not put a chill on the fiery indignation of the citizens. A wide range of opinions were presented as home schoolers, private schoolers, public schoolers, and other concerned citizens let the council know that they were not going to be silenced, nor were they going away.