Grade 6 student convinces mayor to accept curfew compromise

If a curfew for youth is approved and implemented in Thunder Bay, it could come with a Kayla clause.

Grade 6 student Kayla Dupuis suggested to Mayor Keith Hobbs Wednesday in her classroom at St. Elizabeth School that if a curfew had to be put in place, it should be done so as a one-year trial first. It was an idea the mayor liked enough to put his word behind it.
 
“I thought that was a great idea; I never really thought of that,” he said. “So I promised her if we do come forth with a curfew, I’ll put a one-year probationary period on it, see if it works.”

Hobbs visited the Grade 6 class to discuss the curfew he proposed after winning the mayor’s seat in last October’s municipal election. Council approved a feasibility study on the matter to see if keeping youth 16-years-old and younger in their homes from midnight to 6 a.m. would affect the city’s crime rate.

Kayla said she thought of the trial period with the help of another teacher in the school.

“We were thinking that maybe if you try it for a year, it could work and if it doesn’t, well then you don’t need the curfew,” she said, adding she’s on the fence when it comes to the issue.

“There are plus sides and it cannot be good or can be good,” she said.

Some students read a piece of persuasive writing to the mayor and presented him with a petition signed by the entire junior division. The majority of the signatures were of kids against the curfew.
 
Ben Wood said he was adamantly against the curfew because he initially thought it was from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

“I don’t really like the idea of a curfew, just to be honest,’ he said. “I never really was fond of one form the moment I heard about it.”

But the change of the curfew’s start time from 10 p.m. to midnight has him reconsidering his stance.

“I personally thought it was going to be from 10 to 6 and I wouldn’t like that because I like to go to my friend’s house and celebrating New Year’s and all those special events,” he said. “But as soon as I heard (midnight) to 6, if that can be possible and arranged, I would be happy about that. I’d be OK with it.”

When invited to come debate with the students about the curfew, Hobbs said he wanted to come discuss the matter – to hear the students’ views and to share his own.

“These children are brilliant,” he said. “They had solutions to the issues.”

Their enthusiasm is encouraging, he noted, adding every time he visits a classroom he reminds the students that they are the future.

“We have to start capturing the youth at this age and make them aware of the crime issue for sure so they can be part of the solution and not the problem,” Hobbs said.