Consent and Power Imbalances

As someone who has worked with teens, I have been through many workshops, and signed many forms where I agree to several things.  It is entirely age appropriate for teenagers to explore and possibly redefine their sexual identity.  There are tons of ways for them to do this that are also appropriate in communal settings.  So, acting as a chaperone or facilitator or responsible adult may mean I witness these teens expressing themselves in ways that indicate that they are in fact sexual beings.  However, as the adult with the veto power, I exist in a place where I constantly have more power.  What they may be doing is entirely appropriate, my job is to maintain the space in which they do this.  

As an adult it is also natural and appropriate for me to engage in behavior befitting my place in this world as a sexual being.  However, when I have my responsible adult hat on, what is appropriate for me to be engaging in in that moment, in that space, is not the same as what is appropriate and allowed  for those teens. I teach sex ed, so I often talk about sex with teens, but we are doing so in a specific, here are the facts way.  I am talking about it the same way I would talk about voting rights, or history.  I am not sharing personal experiences.  We may reach a place where they feel incredibly comfortable sharing very personal information with me, and my job is to trust, and hold that, to continue to create a space where they can work to be their best selves.  

So, all of this is to say, teacher/student stuff has always been a huge hard stop for me.  It's not cute to me.  It's not adorable to me if they met somewhere else, or the student is wise beyond their years.  I'm not saying books cannot contain problematic behavior.  They can.  I'm not saying there isn't space for non-consensual behavior in books.  There is.  But these things are not romance.  We say a lot that there's one rule in romance, the happily ever after.  And relationships founded on power imbalance and lack of consent do not lead to happily ever afters.  Is there a way to do this?  Yes, but the stories that keep coming up are tittering at their pushing the boundaries.  People who think consent is a cute boundary to push are not trying to write a thoughtful way through this.  

If an author wants to write taboos they can.  If a publisher says that they are reviewing a book now that sensitivities have been raised when they are releasing an erotic romance line I have concerns.  It should not have gotten to the point of arcs for someone to say high schooler and teacher is problematic no matter the age of the high schooler. I personally am not even a fan of college student TA hookups, but that's a not for me good for you squick line.  High schooler and teacher is problematic.  The whole point of it is that it's problematic (I am saying this because I read the Edelweiss description which is all the first problem is...so the marketing is about how it's problematic).  If no one in the line of acquiring editors thought that was problematic until the internet pointed it out that points to an even bigger problem.  

So, I am glad it's being reviewed. I hope it is either not published or published with drastic story changes. And no, I don't think that's censorship.  I think there's no way to publish this as romance.  So something would have to give. 

Pride, I Have it

I once went to a sermon where a radical action-oriented minister mentioned that she's had a congregant say to her that rallying, protesting, and writing to congress wasn't the only way to make the world a better place.  She agreed.  And in that vein I wanted to make something clear.  I worked for about ten years with amazing teenagers from my congregation and others in various capacities.  They were all amazing.  (Seriously.  The adults were often more problematic.)  And as I discover various things from college graduations, to medical school enrollments to jobs of various flavors, to decisions to out themselves as transgender or enroll in seminary or start a blog I continue to be proud.  But, I am proud of each and every one of them.  Even though I had only the teeniest to do with any life success they have put together for themselves.  Working with teenagers is often viewed as a fast track to insanity, but honestly, I remain utterly hopeful about the future of this world thanks to my work with them.  This world is so lucky to have these folks, they are going to change, enhance, and sometimes just exist and make it a better place.  All of them.  All. 

Once Again, Teen Girls are Thought to be Idiots

Ally Carter said once that if she ever needed a huge heist done, she'd get teen girls to do it, since no group is so constantly underestimated at teen girls are.  I imagine the snarky little tweet that set my blood boiling about paranormal YA romances teaching teen girls to love monsters was intended to be humorous. Let me list for you the reasons that I am unable to entertain such a notion. 

1. This assumes that reading romance could only possibly teach you about falling in love with people like the book characters you read about.  So, if I read about military guys, or firefighters, I will no longer be able to fall in love with a lawyer or accountant without first reading a book about it.  As the wonderful posts at read a romance month have shown, romance novels contain many lessons within them, lessons about love, compassion, and expecting to be respected and treated well by those who love you.  I honestly have to wonder if the people who are constantly so threatened by this, worry they are unable to live up to this idea of love and respect. We could spend a lot of time discussing what may or may not be realistic about books, and goodness knows I'm not saying every book is perfect, but dismissing a whole subgenre because someone might get a bad idea reading one, is kind of insulting really.  Oh wait, not kind of.  Totally.  Totally insulting.  No one worries that reading too many mysteries might give you an unrealistic sense of justice. 

2. Paranormal romance is of course, only ever about boys with powers. Oh wait, it totally isn't.  Girls can be vampires, dragons, witches, werewolves and all those other things.  Anyone who had done more than glance in the general direction of the shelf in the bookstore would know that.  Just looking at the covers would make that clear.  But, silly me, I'm ruining the joke with facts. 

3. And the final assumption - of course only teen girls read paranormal romance.  Not boys.  Or adults.  Nope.  Couldn't be.  Unless of course we are somehow assuming that only teen girls will get wrong ideas because adults know that books are fiction and maybe boys do to, but teen girls, apparently don't understand that lesson until they are older.  Sure.

I know, it turns out there was a lot of assumption and misinformation packed into that tweet.  So, I did what I often do these days.  I bought some books until the rage went away.

All About Me

So, once upon a time, I volunteered for this thing called coffee house. My church hosted it a few times a year, and it was an event for teens where local bands would play and it would be a substance free event.  I, of course, thought back to my own high school years, and the negotiations for rides for things and how easy it would have been to get my parents to let me go to an event at a church and thought I want to support this.  (Later one of the teens told me most of the kids don't realize it is a church.) 
There some of the other adult volunteers asked me which were my kids and were surprised to find I did this not to keep an eye on my kids but simply out of my strange desire to volunteer.  (I will tell you it is very loud. And these local bands are often populated by teens themselves so it is a little like a de facto rock talent show. Not that there's anything wrong with that.)
So, one adult, who turned out to also run the youth program at our church handed me a folder about being a youth advisor.  I asked to ponder, but found her a few days later and agreed.  It was January.  I was, essentially, a mid-season replacement for another adult who had been over-committed.  I came to a session, was introduced to the group and the teens were told that after today if they had any concerns to let the coordinator know.  My first glimpse into youth empowerment was that they, essentially, had the power to fire me.  (I will tell you, that I never saw them abuse this power.  I did once, have them ask me about another new adult, was that person for sure going to be there for the whole year, and I told them that they could express any concerns they had and it would be taken into consideration.) 
I learned so many things from them.  The strange thing about working as a youth advisor is that, due to the four walls or Vegas rule, so much of what happens I cannot speak about.  I always thought my life would involve working with kids.  There is a long line of teachers in my family (and writer, and cops).  When my career went in a different direction, it now seems obvious that I would end up finding another to work with kids.  I never thought they would be teens.  Teens scared me a bit, because, let's face it, the power balance is pretty tenuous once they are too big for you to pick them up one handed and they are old enough to understand your lack of power.  So it is amusing now that I not only ended up working with teens but working with them in an environment where the power balance was pretty firmly on their side.
The adults absolutely help and monitor and suggest things, but the teens run this program.  They design the program, they often led the meetings.  They worked on things that supported the church and their own activities, it was amazing to see.  And through them I remember that sense of being a teen and having all that energy and all those ideas and being so ready to go make change in the world. 
As an adult its really easy to get stuck on the logistics.  Someone will say we should create a community garden and I'll say, well, I think that requires permits.  And here's the thing, I may be right about the permits, and the logistics are an important part of it too, but as an adult I sometimes get stuck on the roadblocks and they reminded me of all the plans I had to fix the whole world.  (All of it.)
In the time I worked with the youth group they have gone from being relegated to the expansion trailers (which our then minister kept trying to call cottages) out back, to having their own room.  (Well, as much their own as can happen in a multi-purpose building.)  They started the now annual Murder Mystery Dinner Theater.  They used to only meet at second service.  One year when the numbers were high, the choice was made to meet at both services.  And now, echoing a congregational shift, they only meet first service, and hold extra classes second service.  They suckered me on to Facebook.  They have acknowledged me when running into me on the street or on coffee shops.  They give the most amazing service every year.  (Seriously, people, often people who don't know I work with the youth, tell me how it's their favorite each year.) 
And the last batch of years, we've had a winter retreat where as an exercise in our final worship, we write affirmation papers for each other.  It is one of those ides that sounds so hokey and ridiculous, and now you will pry those papers away from my cold, dead hands.  Each person passes around a piece of paper and everybody writes something about them.  Something nice.  Now, it's hard, not because people aren't lovely, but writing thirty individualized nice things is a bit of a challenge.  But here's a sampling of some I got over the years. 

"You are a great person and have a good outlook on life.  Thanks for being an amazing advisor."
"I like your knitting. I also like your silly anecdotes.  I like you too."
"Keep on rollin' and keep on being a BAMF!"

I am, well, right now we're calling it taking a break from being an advisor.  When I started, the max was four years. My fourth (or three and a halfth, since I started mid-year) coincided with a number of other advisors' fourths and the rule was revisited and discarded.  The challenge was that I have seen people who do it for too long get too attached to the way things have always been done, and the other idea for cycling some new blood in is to increase the number of people in the congregation who know how cool the youth really are.  So, that time has come.  And I keep reminding myself that the goal is too leave while it still feels like I am giving something up.  I have been advised to not try and fill this spot right away, even if I already have another great idea.  (That person is wise.)

7 Things: The Youth Edition

This past weekend was the worship service put on by the youth, which is always a fabulous thing.  (I am biased, but participation in our congregation tends to go up, particularly compared to other lay led services, and typically I sit next to someone who tells me how this is their favorite service each year.)
1. The timing of the service was such that we knew it was likely it would coincide with the search committee's announcement of the new ministerial candidate.  (Several years ago, their service coincided with the associate minister announcing her candidate-ship elsewhere). 
2. But the planning started in February, and when we hung out they seemed mostly done.  (These things are never totally done until you do them, but there you go.)
3. This year's theme was Utopia, so there were readings and songs and a dance about this.  They did a great skit for the story time* spot about working to make the world closer to your own utopia. 
4. There was a pony themed reading. (Although it is my understanding that "My Little Pony" has more to do with unicorns and pegasuses, but there you go.)
5. The seniors who wished to spoke (this year three of them chose to) and made me cry.  (In a good way.  They are pretty proud of making us cry.)
6. There were musical interludes. In the second service there was a minor technical malfunction with a guitar, that the other member of the duo covered well by offering to tell jokes. 
7. But as silly and corny as it is, it is moments like these that instead of feeling sad for humanity, I think humanity is lucky.  These guys have big, big plans to fix this world. 

*It goes under a number of names, but we have a spot early in the service where the kids who are there with their parents get a story or reading or lesson that in theory has multi-generational appeal, but tends to be aimed at the younger kids.  Normally, after that they get sung off to class.  For the youth service, a larger number of them stay for the whole thing.

Memo to My Teen Self: Ha!

This got passed to me after the youth group had a discussion about education.  Now, the part of this that interests me is this school board member went and took the test that they give tenth graders to measure reading and math skills. Now, I think there's an interesting point here. I think this piece overlooks the things that I was sure I would never need again, and then, maybe did, but certainly there's food for thought.  If these adults all agree that many of these things are not useful to their current lives and jobs, then is this the measure we want to use while evaluating schools and kids and who should think about college. 
Now, I confess, I was (and still seem to be) a pretty good test taker, so I was not led astray by errant test results. But while I understand the value of having some sort of consistent measure of students from different schools, I think most people agree these things have flaws. I'm not sure there is a perfect solution, but maybe there is a better solution.  And kids, maybe you should see if you can get your parents to take the test.

Linkety Link

Here is a link list of things I am too lazy (busy, tired) to talk much about.
A fascinating look at the depiction of relationships in "Twilight: Eclipse". (It applies to the movie version, but since I've only read the book, I found it still very applicable.)

One person ponders about the increasing suckage in sports broadcasting.

Some interesting links about "Black Swan" - one wondering why that type of horror gets Oscar buzz, and one wondering if it somehow has a larger than normal age gap in viewers.

And have you ever wondered how law might apply to things like resurrection if superheroes turn out to be real. There's a blog for that.

H/T to the Monkey See blog for the "Black Swan" and sports links. And H/T to the nice person who pointed me to the "Eclipse" link. H/T to ALOTT5MA for the comics law link.

Teens + Books

As anyone who has ever wandered from section to section in a bookstore (or music store, or, heck in their email foldering system) knows the subdivisions, or genres as people often refer to them are just a starting point so that if you know you like a certain kind of thing, you can start over there on the left rather than having to comb the shelves for hours or until you give up and pick one because it’s purple.
But, of course, there can be issues with such subdivisions. Someone, or even a committee of someones, decided that this book was this because of this, but really you read the description or heard a recommendation from your friend and you thought it was this. And sure, most people expect this and they have nice info people (hopefully) and/or kiosks where you can look it up and eventually find it. I’ve told people the story of searching for _Seabiscuit_ and checking “Biography” and “Animals” and “Celebrity Biographies” before asking and discovering it was in the “Sports” section (which makes sense, don’t get me wrong, but I think all of mine were not crazy also).
So, with the rise of young adult as a category becoming less things that people think will be good for young adults* to read, and a broader description of young adult as a category of books where the main protagonist(s) are young adults. Period. How is this different than before? Well, the biggest difference is that books that previously might have been shelved in the adult section (which I think is usually called "Fiction", unless of course it’s a mystery, sci-fi or romance) due to adult themes (abuse, sex, rape, drug use) are now being shelved in young adult.
Now, when I say shelved, certainly some bookstores and libraries are making their own choices, I’m just speaking at the level of broad categorization.
Some examples of books that based on this classification are young adult:
Romeo and Juliet
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
To Kill a Mockingbird
Catcher in the Rye

Now, I just want to point out, that I read all of these books in school, so clearly the idea that these books were appropriate for school aged children is not new. And no, I do not mean to suggest that Shakespeare intended his play to be only for young adults.
Because this brings me to my next point, there is no upper age limit (or lower for that matter) for readers of young adult. Nor is there intended to be. The new classification is intended, just like that of fantasy or romance, to assist readers (of all ages) who are looking for a certain type of book to read.
So, when I hear someone (who does not deserve the linkage) suggesting that signage further breaking down the young adult section is a terrible sign heralding the death of publishing, I beg to differ. Because, as you may be able to guess, if the broad category of young adult only really tells you the age of the protagonist, well, then, what happens if you like reading about teens but only mysteries, or romance, or paranorma? I’ve seen quite a few bookstores segment the YA section so you can better find them. And if that causes further confusion, well, thank god for info people and kiosks.

*In the case of books, young adults generally refers to 13-19, high schoolers in particular. Although there is overlap sometimes with the middle grade (11-13 - ie middle school) and adult, and there is some discussion of a post-YA category targeting the 19-22 range.

It Gets Better

So, I first heard about the Trevor Project a few months ago. It was started to provide support to LGBTQ youth so as to reduce suicide in that group. Then, not too long ago I heard that some anti-bullying programs were being challenged for being anti-Christian. Now my google-fu has found that there is a lack of clarity about who is mad at what, perhaps because the group in questions realized that being seen as pro-bullying was not the way to go.
And then I heard about the It Gets Better Project. Started by columnist Dan Savage, various folks with vary levels of fame have recorded or posted messages to say that, as crap as it may seem right now, it gets better.
And here's the thing - I encourage everyone to check these out, LGBTQ teen or not, because these are messages that speak to everyone who's had a day where you think - that's it, this life thingy is the dumbest ever (and we all have). I am a partcular fan of Kay Bornstein's and not jsut because she offers a "Get Out of Hell Free card" (should you believe in Hell).

Censorship Sucks

So, here’s the thing - I know I’ve said most, if not all, of this before. But it apparently bears repeating. People don’t have to love every boo, want to read every book, or even want their kids to read every book. Where censorship becomes an issue is when you make that decision for a whole group. I learned about sex when I was four. It did not make me try to run out and have any. I can’t pinpoint when I learned about drugs, but I can tell you that I was lucky enough to go to a great school that offered not only comprehensive sex ed, but drug education that was more than these are all the things you shouldn’t do. (It also talked about the different effects of different drugs, and the side effects.)
And I love books. I learned about all sorts of fascinating things from books, sparked great discussion with my parents and friends based on scenarios I read about, and got to think about what I would do if I were the character. Intriguingly, the Our Whole Lives sex ed course, uses similar scenario based role playing to help students (of all ages, they have junior high, high school, young adult and adult versions) think about how to handle conversations and choices. So I think reading about such things is great, and again, I promise teens know about sex and drugs (and rock and roll).
Ellen Hopkins, author of such books, was invited to the Teen Lit Fest that is being held in Texas in January. (I’ve heard good things about past festivals.) Anyway a teacher saw this and went to some parents who then went the the superintendent who uninvited her. Apparently, his response to one librarian in the district who wanted Hopkins there indicated that he hadn’t actually read the books in question but felt that the librarian he had spoken with had provided reasonable explanation. Here’s what annoys me about this (you know, other than the censorship). I recall, back in the day, a politician quoting the opening lines* of “Trainspotting” saying that this is what is wrong with today’s movies. The thing is, if you’ve actually seen the movie you know that that is the setup for the main character’s arc. He starts off a heroine addict with, well, no ambition and then, stuff happens and he changes. So, that quote lets you know where he starts. And the movie does a nice job of illustrating why you might not wish to be like these guys. But sure, if someone just read you that opening quote, you might not think there was anything good about the movie. And you’d be missing the point.
But, back to Hopkins the other reason (again, other than the censorship) it bugs is because wouldn’t it be really useful for, oh I don’t know, a discussion to occur at the Teen Lit Festival about how authors make choices about their books and about how teens actually feel about reading such things? And, sadly, the real losers are the teens who are now losing opportunities to meet with authors.

*”Choose life . . . But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life: I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?”

H/T to Smart Bitches for the link.
Also, Melisa De La Cruz has a post about her reaction here. And Tera Lynn Childs has her eloquent response here.

I took a lot of history in college, p...

To Essay or Not
I took a lot of history in college, partly because I enjoyed it and partly because I had worked out a good system.  History courses at the time there all had a three week essay cycle - in that every three weeks you had to turn in an essay and then you would get the assignment for the next one.  (IT also meant my history major roommate who was taking three history classes had an essay due every week).  The reality was that the history courses were well designed to give you an idea what the exam would be like (unlike say, the second year psychology course where the first essays you wrote were on the exam). 
My medieval history professor actually had very good recall of the library books, such that he would look at my bibliography first and then based on that know what source information I had (which was both cool - he certainly didn't expect me to know what I hadn't read, and a little scary, he knew just what I had read).  I had a classmate who, in a different history course copied a friends' essay and turned that in.  Since this was the early nineties and not all students had computers (although we did all have access to the computer lab, which, let me tell you was often quiet and relatively empty), she actually hand copied it.  There were a number of potential issues I could see - which I did point out to her: What if the professor recognized it? If you could guarantee that the professor would not, what guarantee would you have that it would get the same grade?  Wouldn't it suck more to get a crap grade with someone else's words?  Wouldn't writing your own paper be only marginally slower and hopefully less boring than copying someone else's words?  (In the end, while I don't know what happened with that particular paper, she was a no show for our history seminar (missed all four weeks) and since the seminar had twelve people and the aforementioned meticulous professor, and she also failed to turn in the seminar assignments, she got no credit for the course as a whole.) 
So, now that one can actually cut and paste a paper, or order one online and type their name across the top, it is not terribly surprising to me that their is a rise in internet enabled plagiarism and also a rise in catching plagiarism. What I found interesting about this article was the suggestion that rather than straight essays, a multi-media package on a topic was suggested as a better way to capture.  I confess I was at one point able to diagram the Battle of Stirling Bridge (which featured an actual bride, Hollywood) so I can only imagine what I might have put together on that.  (particularly since the overlap in my history course was such that I believe I covered that battle three times.)

And Now to Get a Bit Lighter

(Yeah, I could just show you yarn. It will happen again. Soon even.)
I saw the link to this over at Do Nothing But Read Day - 10 in '10 Teen Chick Lit Challenge.
I figure it's a good excuse to get through the YA stuff that's been lingering in the TBR pile. While the list is subject to change, right now I expect it to include:
1. Oh my Goth by Gena Showalter
2. Oh. My. Gods. by Tera Lynn Childs
3. Long May She Reign by Ellen Emerson White
4. The Wish by Gail Carson Levine
5. Ninth Key by Meg Cabot
6. My Soul to Save by Rachel Vincent
7. Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles
(Yes, I do notice a lot of fantasy on there.) I'm sure it'll shift/expand/contract. But that seems like a good start.

Fictional Kids

And to counter yesterday's rant, let me chat about something I've sen done really well. I am super picky about kids in books. Perhaps I like kids too much to see them used as plot pawns or just got sick of the precious little children who appeared long enough to ask, "Will you marry my daddy?" or some such ridiculousness.
This is by no means a comprehensive list but tome people I have seen do kids really well include:
Nora Roberts*
Lani Diane Rich
Sandra Kitt (who has more than one teenager in For All We Know

Now you might notice I have not included young adult or children's authors, and it's not that I think they are unworthy, it's that I think that's a whole different skill, creating a believable protagonist who is also a kid or young adult.
(Also, that list is really, really long for me. This one probably would be too if I really sat and thought about it.)

*Nora Roberts even has kids who start big life conversations with their parent's love interest, but they do it in a way that sounds like a real kid, rather than a scripted kid.

It May Look Like Just Hanging Out

The UUA President Peter Morales said this, in the latest UU World,
"I am convinced that we too often fail to recognize how much our children, youth, and young adults need to give. Hanging out is not a spiritual practice. Joining hands to work for something we care about is. Service is an essential part of faith development. We need to do so much more to engage the idealism and energy of our young people."
Now here's the thing, I absolutely agree that service to and for others is an important part of being a spiritual community. But there are three things that bother me about this.
(ChaliceChick has also chimed in wonderfully over here.)
1. While the column does address the needs of congregations as a whole to give, he has chosen to particularly single out people under the age of 35*. I don't necessarily believe his intention was to imply that these groups are somehow slacking, but here's the interesting thing about these groups - many in congregations assume that they are slacking. Or that they are available for free labor - to look after the young kids while the adults have fun, or to help move a couch. One youth ministry coordinator used to respond to requests for youth to assist with something by asking what other groups had been called on. Her feeling was that if you wouldn't also make this same request of the choir, or the coffee groups, then maybe picking on the youth wasn't the best approach either.
2. I understand that contributing to the greater good is important part of congregational life. I also understand that studies show that congregants participating in such events end up feeling more deeply committed to their congregation, so it serves the congregation well too. But it also means the congregation has to figure out how to offer options that don't require a monetary commitment (young adults are often in transitional life phases), have easy access to public transportation so that kids, youth and young adults can get there without having to rely on parents for a ride, and fit well into their busy lives. Some congregations assume that if you can get there on Sunday, you must be able to get there any other time too, forgetting the complex arrangements that might entail.
3. Hanging out is important. It helps bond you to your fellow congregants. It helps remind you that there are others who believe similar things, which for UU kids, youth and young adults is really important. They often face confusion and even mild harassment for their beliefs in school, they need to be reminded that there is a place where they are the norm. And these kids, the number one reason we don't see a youth for a few weeks is usually because they were too busy with sports, homework or theater work. It is rarely because they chose to sleep in (although if they did, I could hardly blame them). I'm not saying that the other things they do (which ChaliceChick listed well, although I would add the Murder Mystery Dinner Theater and the Coffee Houses that they run, with the money from these events going to charity). And the youth enjoy those things too, in fact most of these came from a youth coming up with the idea and now it's just one more thing we do each year. But they should also have space to hang out with each other.

*For RE purposes, the UU definition of child is 0-14, youths are usually high school aged 14-22, and young adults are 18-35.
Edited for spelling.

Teen Curfews (Governmental Not Parental)

I confess, I was not a teen who was out so much that a teen curfew would likely have impacted me outside of prom. I also don't remember one being in place in DC until I was outside the age where it would apply. However, it still bugs me, especially now that they are considering making it earlier.
In part, it concerns me because I think it is intentionally targeting a group simply because they cannot vote. I have seen no evidence that teens commit more crime or cause more problems than any other age group, and yet, when crime spikes in the summer, everyone seems to blame teens.
I also find it really hard to believe, that if teens really were responsible for such a large part of the summer crime wave, that they wouldn't be able to find away to commit all these crimes in daylight. I also fine the idea hilarious that a teenager who was thinking of committing a crime would turn to his or her friend and say, "Well, we'll have to do this tomorrow because the curfew starts soon."
In most cases, the various articles I scanned, most people in favor of the curfew seemed to be sure it worked because youth crime reduced. (We'll get back to that in a bit.)
Now first, studies have shown that perception of youth crime is incorrect. As this article points out, people often think teenagers are responsible for a larger percentage of crime because of media coverage. In fact media coverage of teens relates to crime more often than any other issue.
So far as I can tell (with my google powers) no one has ever proved that teen curfews help anything. (In fact, the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice indicates that most studies show that youth offenses occur between 3 and 6 pm.) So, they simply serve the purpose of allowing the public to believe steps are being taken by marginalizing a potion of the non-voting population.
Also, and perhaps I am off-base here, but it seems like in a crime wave, perhaps police officers should be focused on other things rather than sending (or sentencing*) teens for being out late.
In fact, one study found that in the nineties**, the most common crime teens were arrested for was curfew violation - far in excess of any other crime. (Another study, found that counties with curfews had similar youth crime increases and decreases than those without. And, in fact - according to FBI statistics - youth crime has decreased at a higher rate than other crime when broken out by age.)
Now you might be asking, what's the harm? Well, there have been incidents (in other cities with curfews) where teens were harassed by police officers seeking to send them home. One incident that got a lot of airplay was the teen (who perhaps confused about why she was being arrested, considering she cries both for her mom and for help in the video) ended up pepper sprayed and punched by the arresting officer***. Now certainly she was in violation, and you could argue that she should simply have complied. However, I think the greater risk here is that now she, and one imagines her friend and a number of other teens who saw the video and heard the story, believe that police officers assume the worst about teens and will be more likely to arrest them than assist them. And that, I think, would be the real tragedy.

*Community service is the usual punishment, in many states. However, some require the teen(s) to be arrested and charged first.
**If it seems like most of my data is old, you're right. No one has studied this in the present decade.
***Also, the officer spotted her on his way to responding to a 911 call, so it certainly seems to help no one that he stopped to arrest her. However, to me, the issue is that it appears she was wandering the street because her grandmother had kicked her out. And then, she got arrested for being out.