Fifty students of BHS took a five question survey over the subject of curfews. A curfew is the time a parent scheduled their child to come back home. Most curfews start in teenage years and the older the student get, the later the time gets. However, that is not true for everyone at BHS.

The most common age for getting a high schooler’s first curfew according to this survey is fourteen years old, about 50 percent of the students voted. A great amount of teens have curfews but not all of them, about 2 percent of the high school teens were never assigned a curfew from their parents. The amount of students that were sixteen years old when they received their first curfew was 12 percent, and no one at all were assigned a curfew at seventeen years old.

Some parents are strict and want them home early and on the dot, some parents are more lenient and let their child adventure a little more so they give them a later time to return home. Then there are the parents who feel like they can trust their child and they will let the curfew be set on whenever they want. A little less than 50 percent of the students have a curfew of midnight, and the percents tied at 28 percent for 10 p.m. and whenever they wanted.

When asked if teens thought curfews were needed, the responses varied both ways, 34 percent of students said no they do not need a curfew because their parents didn’t know when they got home anyways and the 22 percent who voted no said the reason was because their parents were too worried and protective. The amount of students who responded yes was 26 percent, and they thought it was a good idea because it gave them a good time limit and at least their parents let them go out. So is having a curfew pointless or not?

“Yes, because if teenagers do not get in trouble, make good decisions, and are responsible for their actions then the parents should be able to trust their decisions and let them stay out as late as they want.”

Does a curfew help kids stay out of trouble? The majority of adults and parents would most likely say yes to this question because no one is up to act up, but only 12 percent of students thought that. However 42 percent students said it does help teens stay out of trouble because curfews are a part of good parenting. The reasons kids said it would not help was because they will sneak out anyway at 14 percent, and the other 32 percent of them said no because they were responsible and good students, they do not cause trouble.

Half of the teenagers at BHS do not even know the city has a curfew or what the time is. The percent of teens that know the correct time curfew is 36 percent, 35 percent didn’t even know the city had a curfew. The other 22 percent said yes they knew the city had a curfew but it doesn’t matter.