Curfew for Kids in Baltimore.

By the next school year, kids in the city of Baltimore will need to abide by a new curfew. They have to be off the streets as early as 9 p.m. under legislation the City Council approved Monday.

The mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who pledged to sign the bill into law, said the measure will keep the city's children and teens safe and identify families in need of intervention. The law won't take effect until about mid-August, a delay that's expected to give the administration time to open a year-round curfew center.

"I am not willing to gamble on the lives of our children," Rawlings-Blake said. "Let me be clear: This is not a criminal enforcement act by the police. Children will not enter into the criminal justice system for merely violating curfew. "This is about taking them out of harm's way.”

Under the new curfew, children under 14 must be indoors year-round by 9 p.m. Children 14 through 16 will be able to stay out until 10 on school nights and 11 p.m. on weekends and over the summer.

Some exceptions will apply, including allowing young people to be out late if they are with a parent, or traveling home from work or going to a religious event or a recreational activity.

This is great!

How I wished every major city in the United States would adopt this type of curfew. In view of the sad murder rates of children in many inner cities, it’s high time every government at local level took a firm decision such as this to save kids.

In most cities across the nation, kids are being used as instruments of crime by some shameless individuals. For example, kids are being employed as “wagons” in whose custody drug dealers keep their dangerous wares. This is done because law enforcement officers usually don’t suspect kids in major raids. The same kids are however exposed to the many senseless shootings and killings between rival drug dealers and gangs.

Most times, one can only wonder what the parents of such kids are doing or where they are under such dire circumstances. It is expected therefore that the mayor may want to go further by imposing legal sanctions on parents whose kids are caught violating the curfews. Parents have to be held accountable for their kids.