02/12/06
By LISA LIVERMORE AND TIM HIGGINS
REGISTER STAFF WRITERS
If 1950s film icon James Dean were a teenager in Iowa today, he might find plenty of causes for rebellion. Adults and authority figures seem to be working overtime in 2006 to impose new rules on young people.
School districts, counties and Iowa legislators have been drafting rules, ordinances and legislation affecting youth. Some would limit teen driving, Internet surfing and partying. Other proposals would shield young people from racy movies or violent video games.
In some schools, students have to sit in assigned seats at lunch. In others, they are banned from carrying water bottles or wearing backpacks over the noon hour by administrators trying to promote safety or keep out alcohol.
The trend has some parents and academics concerned. If youth are pushed too much to conform, critics say, they will struggle with critical thinking and creativity in adulthood.
"They just react to things if something bad happens," said Ames parent Carole
Brown . "I don't want to live in that society. . . . I grew up in the '70s. Our high school, we could have 14 absences without a note from a parent."
A trend accelerating throughout the nation
Professors in political science and education say some of the rules come as federal authorities are demanding more academically, schools are getting more crowded and parents are seen as more likely to sue school districts for failing to protect their children. Modern teens used to being constantly entertained are also more difficult to control without regulation, administrators say. Lawmakers say parents need help to keep kids away from unsavory influences from Hollywood and the Internet.
Warren Blumenfeld , an Iowa State University assistant professor in the department of curriculum and instruction , said he has seen a trend of more regulation for teens, which started in the 1990s after several highly publicized school shootings caused administrators to more security.

The trend accelerated with the passage of federal legislation requiring more standardized tests and a social climate of fear triggered by the war on terrorism, he said.
The examples over the years in Iowa schools are numerous. Last year, there was a hugging ban at Des Moines Merrill Middle School, imposed by administrators concerned about overcrowding in the hallways. For a brief time in
2003, students at Willowbrook Elementary School in Altoona were forbidden to talk over the lunch hour. In Boone, high school officials said this fall they would be taking a hard look at homecoming activities in response to toilet paper vandalism.
Schools in other states are also taking greater measures to protect teenagers.
This year, several Washington, D.C.-area schools have prohibited students from using the school e-mail address to register on networking sites for students and their friends. State lawmakers elsewhere have also created laws specifically targeting teens. California recently outlawed unsupervised driving during latenight hours for teens who have had their license less than one year.
"We don't think that's healthy for society"
The legislation pending in Iowa is a response to constituents' concerns, lawmakers said.
"You are starting to see society, or at least the society that speaks to legislators, trying to push back and say there are some things here that youth are able to do or that they are being exposed to and we don't think that's healthy for society," said state Rep. Doug Struyk, a Republican from Council Bluffs.
Struyk attracted a lot of attention last year when he proposed banning flashy hubcaps that spin within a car's wheels
— popular among teens and young adults.
It was an idea ridiculed by some as a waste of time and praised by others as a good idea. It never moved beyond a subcommittee.
In the past week, lawmakers introduced legislation aimed at keeping teenagers from receiving pornographic material from unsolicited e-mails, and subcommittee work began on legislation that would impact extreme fighting.
One lawmaker said he'd like to ban the professional fights out of fear that they lead teenagers to mimic the bouts in brutal backyard fights.
Earlier this month, teens themselves lobbied legislators for a law aimed at combating underage drinking. The legislation would require registration of kegs of beer sold by retailers. Supporters say that would help police find out who

provided the beer at underage parties.
A bill by Rep. Dawn Pettengill, a Democrat from Mount Auburn, which would ban retailers from displaying or selling sex toys to minors, drew some attention.
Pettengill said she came up with the idea after visiting a mall and seeing a teenage boy embarrass a girl by pulling a sexual device off a store shelf.
Pettengill said earlier this month, "When you are worried about people becoming sex offenders and talking about raising family values, we need to have this kind of legislation."
"A lot more unnecessary rules"
Gretchen Woods, who works with youth in central Iowa, said young people who do good things for their community might be unfairly asked to follow regulations that have been created in response to bad things other youth do. Woods is an adviser to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Youth Council, a group of high school and middle school students who meet in the Des Moines area to talk about NAACP issues.
She said community members should instead seek to listen to teens. "Listen to the ones doing great things and the ones in trouble," she said. "You know when you put a rule in place, the first thing a creative mind is going to figure out is a way to break them."
In Ames, students are complaining to administrators for creating too many restrictions during lunch.
Mary Woeste, 15, a freshman at Ames High School, said many students at her school are upset about what she said was a new ban on backpacks in the cafeteria.
"I think there are a lot more unnecessary rules that are coming out lately," she said, also referring to statewide discussions of limiting the number of passengers in cars driven by young people. "People who are not actually in our situation do not understand where our problems are coming from."
Rules are also disturbing social relationships, young people said.
Greer Brown, 12, a sixth-grader at Ames Middle School , said she has struggled with a new rule at her school requiring students to sit in assigned seats at lunch.
She said one friend sits at her table at lunch, "but her other friends started ignoring her, because she didn't sit with them," she said. "In general — not a good rule."
College-level leaders have also struggled with the issue of regulation. Recently,
ISU President Gregory Geoffroy lifted a campus ban on alcohol at the university's

annual Veishea celebration, which was canceled last year because of a drunken riot the year before.
The decision was praised by students promising to behave if they were given more breathing room.
"In some ways, the schools reflect the larger society," said Blumenfeld, the ISU curriculum and instruction professor.
"I'm just fearing that it's going to inhibit creativity and critical thinking on the part of our students when control is the overriding condition in the schools."
Students "crying out for rules and codes"
School officials said parents expect rules coming from other authorities to reduce the pressure on them.
At Iowa City's City High School, students must obtain a doctor's permission to carry water bottles in the hall or from class to class. Otherwise, the activity is banned.
Mark Hanson , principal of the high school, said the three-year-old rule was created, and has stayed in place, due in part to concern that young people will smuggle in alcohol in their water bottles.
"It still happens every year," he said. "I've told my faculty in some cases, the school personnel are the best parent the student will have all day. . . . I do think the students are crying out for rules and codes, and we would be doing them a major disservice if we weren't doing that."
Those thoughts were echoed by Tom Kozisek , the police chief in Garner, where
Hancock County recently passed an ordinance requiring adults who buy kegs to register their names with retailers.
The ordinance, like ones passed by several other counties in the state, is designed to reduce the number of teen keg parties and make it easier for police to find adult suppliers of alcohol.
"My own feeling is, if you just do the education, kids have a tendency to tune it out," Kozisek said. "That's why I think it's better to have restrictions."
Youth-orientated legislation
The following are examples of proposed legislation affecting youth in Iowa:
VIDEO GAMES

House File 2104 would bar retailers from selling or renting violent or sexually explicit video games to children without a parent's consent.
BEER
Supporters want to require all kegs of beer sold to be registered to better track the keg if it is found at a party where underage people are drinking.
CELL PHONES
An Iowa KYDS
— Keep Young Drivers Safe — initiative would prohibit teen drivers from using a cell phone while driving except to contact the police or another emergency services agency.
TEEN DRIVERS
Other parts of initiative would expand the hours during which teens with intermediate licenses would be prohibited from driving. It would bar driving between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. The current curfew begins at 12:30 a.m. There are exceptions, including for work- and school-related travel.
SEX TOYS
House File 2163 would ban the sale of sex toys to anyone younger than 18.
Under the legislation, any person other than a parent would be prohibited from allowing a minor to see or have "certain sexual devices designed for sexual stimulation."
EXTREME FIGHTING
Under House Study Bill 543, professional extreme fighting would become unregulated. One lawmaker said he thinks the sport should be banned because children are seeing the violent sport and mimicking the fights in unsafe ways.
INTERNET RESTRICTIONS
House File 2285 would create a "no-contact" list to prohibit electronic messages regarding pornography and other things that are illegal for minors to purchase or view from reaching children.
LIBRARY ACCESS
Senate File 2108 would require libraries to install software to block the access of pornography on library computers and prohibit minors from borrowing R-rated videos.