{"id":417,"date":"2011-02-05T18:21:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-06T00:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=417"},"modified":"2011-02-05T18:21:00","modified_gmt":"2011-02-06T00:21:00","slug":"driving-young-adults-out-of-iowa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=417","title":{"rendered":"Driving Young Adults Out Of Iowa"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It has to be tough being a kid in Iowa.\u00a0 There can be no better evidence of that statement than merely watching the legislation that is introduced in the Iowa General Assembly<\/a> this session that pertains to school-aged minors.<\/p>\n

Some members of the Iowa House are determined to make all children look alike.\u00a0 House File 77<\/a>, a bill that will allow school districts to draft prescriptive dress code policies, has found its way out of the House Education Committee<\/a> and is ready for debate on the House floor.\u00a0 Two brave Democrats stood up to the nonsense of this government regulation of children and their families.\u00a0 Representatives Dan Kelley<\/a> (D-Newton) and Nate Willems<\/a> (D-Lisbon) voted \u201cno\u201d on the bill\u2019s passage out of committee.<\/p>\n

House File 116<\/a> is a bill that raises the compulsory school attendance from age 16 to 18, and attaches a caveat that an adolescent who quits school prior to the age of 18 is not eligible to obtain a driver\u2019s license.\u00a0 But it goes much further than that.\u00a0 If the teen who quits school turns eighteen after September 15, he or she cannot obtain the driver\u2019s license until the end of the school year.\u00a0 Let\u2019s face it, some kids don\u2019t belong in school, and everything society does to force them through the pain of attending can only make it worse \u2013 for everyone!\u00a0 Is the real intent of this legislation counting the teenager for school district funding without any real social benefit?\u00a0 This bill has not moved yet, but we\u2019re watching it closely.<\/p>\n

Another driver\u2019s license-related issue is Senate Study Bill 1032<\/a>.\u00a0 Stephanie and I were the only two people in a room of about 50 that opposed this legislation in a subcommittee meeting this week.\u00a0 The intent may be noble \u2013 preventing teens from being involved in serious accidents, but the practicality of the matter is another chance for adolescents to rebel.\u00a0 SSB 1032 limits a minor with an intermediate driver\u2019s license from carrying more than one passenger unless other passengers are immediately related to the driver, such as a parent or sibling.\u00a0 The original bill also narrowed the current curfew from 12:30 am to 10:00 pm, but the subcommittee amended that section from the bill.<\/p>\n

A major concern of Fawkes-Lee & Ryan, as it pertains to SSB 1032, is that it creates more status crimes.\u00a0 Status crimes are defined by Nolo.com<\/a> as such:\u00a0 \u201cIn juvenile cases, a “status offense” involves conduct that would not be a crime if it was committed by an adult — in other words, the actions are considered to be a violation of the law only because of the juvenile’s status as a minor (typically anyone under 18 years of age).\u201d\u00a0 As a rule, curfews, truancy and possession of tobacco are status crimes.\u00a0 Imagine with us, if you will, the various maneuvers of getting around this law \u2013 hiding in the back seat, claiming that everyone is a sibling without identification, tinting windows darker than allowed by law, etc.\u00a0 Many of those shenanigans will, no doubt, end up in charges of \u201cinterference with official acts\u201d, which is already overused and abused by some law enforcement officials.<\/p>\n

If a juvenile is mentally retarded or <\/strong>suffers from a mental illness, things get tougher if the juvenile is adjudicated delinquent in juvenile court.\u00a0 House Study Bill 38<\/a> and Senate Study Bill 1057<\/a> are bills that we\u2019ve seen before.\u00a0 They are bills that, in the past, have been requested by the Iowa County Attorney\u2019s Association<\/a>.\u00a0 The intent of these bills is to remove language that sets aside a disposition of adjudication and dismisses a petition where a mentally retarded or mentally ill child commits a delinquent act, and the child is being committed to a mental health institution.\u00a0 These bills have not had a subcommittee meeting at this time.\u00a0 Last year, the Iowa Association for Justice<\/a> played a huge role in preventing this issue from moving past the funnel dates.<\/p>\n

There are at least three bills this far into the session that are sympathetic to juveniles who have been caught up in the justice system, but we\u2019ll not get too excited about them until we see better progress.\u00a0 However, one of those bills favorable to youth that is moving, at least in the Senate, is the bill that addresses the problem with juveniles being sent to prison for life (without the possibility of parole) for non-homicide crimes.\u00a0 The bill will allow a juvenile defendant in a non-homicide case to be eligible for parole after 15 years [the bill originally states 25 years, but the bill was amended in subcommittee to lower the eligibility by another 10 years.\u00a0 County attorneys propose 45 years.].\u00a0 See \u201cA Must-Do For The Iowa Legislature<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Copyright 2011 Fawkes-Lee & Ryan.\u00a0 All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n

Tune in<\/h2>\n

Stephanie and Marty have become regulars in the webcast world.<\/p>\n

Marty is on Chautauqua Weekends at 7:00 am Saturday mornings at: http:\/\/www.desmoinesamplified.com\/show.asp?showid=42<\/a><\/p>\n

Stephanie appears on Chautauqua 50309 on Wednesday evenings (8:00 \u2013 10:00 pm) http:\/\/www.desmoinesamplified.com\/show.asp?showid=25<\/a><\/p>\n

Both are regular guests of Max Knauer.\u00a0 Listen in on Saturday mornings for an update of legislative activity for the week.\u00a0 Or, listen in on Wednesday evening for a dose of the hot topics brewing at the Iowa Capitol.\u00a0 You may also catch up by listening to a podcast at:\u00a0 http:\/\/chatauqua50309.wordpress.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some members of the Iowa House are determined to make all children look alike. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,17],"tags":[26,177,81,158,47,178,160,175,176],"class_list":["post-417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criminal-justice","category-issues","tag-fawkes-lee-and-ryan","tag-ia-assn-for-justice","tag-iowa-county-attorneys-association","tag-iowa-general-assembly","tag-juveniles","tag-max-knauer","tag-mental-illness","tag-rep-dan-kelley","tag-rep-nate-willems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=417"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":419,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417\/revisions\/419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}