FIC: The Year of Living Dangerously, Part II (Veronica/Logan, Ensemble) (Author's Note) (NC-17)

[vanessagalore]

Regarding the so-called 'Parental Responsibility Act':

For the purposes of this fic, I had the 'Parental Responsibility Act' passed in 2004, but in fact most of the parental responsibility statutes have been around a lot longer than that, and they are NOT known under that title. Also, I completely made up the statistic regarding the decline in juvenile crime after the passage of my completely fictional 'Act'. Here's a summary of the actual California law on parents' responsibilities:
"CALIFORNIA: Parents are responsible if the parent has knowledge of the child's potential for misconduct and fails to take reasonable steps to prevent such misconduct; if the parent has signed the child's driver's license application or the child drives the parent's car with the parent's knowledge and permission; if the child is guilty of willful misconduct; or if the child is given ready access to a firearm."
from: http://www.enotes.com/everyday-law-encyclopedia/parent-liability-child-s-act
Also see this article on Wikipedia about U.S. parental responsibility laws in general and California law in particular, which has survived a challenge in the California State Supreme Court.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_responsibility_%28criminal%29
The point is that these laws create a powerful incentive for a parent to lock up their misbehaving child, and the tough-love schools have tapped into that market by exploiting parents' reasonable fears. (Okay, getting off my soapbox now.)

Back to the fic.