Summer curfew enacted for kids in Chester to maintain safety
CHESTER, Pa. - In an effort to keep its children safe during the summer, the city of Chester in Delaware County is once again enforcing a curfew.
By week’s end, Chester-Upland’s 2,700 public school students will begin their summer break. In this Delaware County community, trying to mount a comeback after years of struggles, crime and the safety of its children remain a big concern.
David Nelson of Chester said, "I’m with it. It reminds me of when I was younger. We had to be in by the streetlights." Nelson, a vendor along Chester’s Avenue of the States, and the father of a pair of teenagers, said he supports a curfew the city is once again putting in place as the school year closes.
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Chester’s Police Commissioner Steven Gretsky said children 17-years-old and younger are to be inside their homes from 9:00 at night to 6:00 in the morning. Gretsky said the summer has brought an "uptick" in violence against the city’s children and by them. He hopes to stop it.
Timika Haley, who works in Chester educating and caring for young children, argues, "Today’s parents are today’s kids’ friends. The parents out here today, they don’t really pay too much attention to their kids, as long as they don’t have to be bothered by them. They allow them to go outside."
City officials said children with a parent, working or going to and from work, are exempt. Chester will soon put a "curfew van" on the road to enforce the rule and cite parents who refuse to do their part of keeping their kids in and out of trouble.