Learner's Permit
Should the law bring a person onto unequal grounds based on the disability of their parents?
As a parent who coached a 15-year-old through his permit stage last year, and expecting to begin all over again in August (yes, coinciding with the start of 1L), I certainly understand the value of the rule - child puts in many many hours of practice driving with responsible adult (licensed instructor or parent/guardian, over age 21) supervising in the front passenger seat.
Trust me. The role of responsible adult can be hair-raising. It's not the kid's driving, per se, but the biting the tongue that is so difficult (I still remember the first trip down to the Zoo with son in the driver's seat... I-25 to I-76 to I-270 to I-70 is not fun for me, and I had to calmly and quietly direct him???) So, naturally, the only persons who are willing to put out the inconvenience, time, and lost years of life in stress are the parents of these children.
And this law is certainly better than how it was when I was a kid... When I was a senior in high school, my parents essentially handed me the key, took me to the courthouse in downtown Fairfield, Iowa and said, take the test. Zero experience, and they figured I'd get a driver's license. (Only, they were wrong; when the tester said, "Make a left turn at this stoplight," he clued in that I was clueless when I waited through three cycles of the light trying to figure out how to get through the unbroken traffic. But gee, in the county I lived in, there were no stoplights, so I'd no idea how a left turn worked.) I didn't attempt to drive again until I was married - and that's a sure sign of true love right there folks - my husband taught me how to drive. As we were both still in undergrad then, during one visit out to his parents we stopped by the little courthouse in his extremely rural home town, and I managed to go sufficiently around the block (one way streets... no left turns) and park head-in. Voila! My first licence. I freely admit that I was a danger to society for a while. But a four-year stay in Los Angeles cured me of all driving fears and ills.
But I digress. By the time my son had his fifty hours under his belt and got his real licence, he was an excellent driver, experienced in day and night, rain and ice, stick and automatic, and having towed a one-and-a-half-ton trailer to Iowa and back while his siblings mostly-didn't-keep-it-to-a-dull-roar in back. It was with confidence that we turned him loose on the streets.
The law that requires kids to get the 50 hours drive practice (it is 50, isn't it? or some such big number, I don't exactly recall) makes sense.
But it makes an important assumption - that a parent who wants a child to learn to drive will also have the ability to fulfill the role of terror-stricken front-seat passenger.
So what happens when a child's parent is blind? Is the child barred (while yet a teen) from obtaining a license? Is this fair to the child? To the parent? Is this a violation of the spirit of the Disabilities Act?
The girl's 80-year-old grandparent is willing, but the State says "nothing doing; it has to be a parent or guardian." So, couldn't some smart attorney draw up some paperwork giving a limited power of guardianship or some such to the grandparent, specifically for the purpose of the learner's permit? And why couldn't somebody have figured out a solution with fairness before they had to sue the State?
As a parent who coached a 15-year-old through his permit stage last year, and expecting to begin all over again in August (yes, coinciding with the start of 1L), I certainly understand the value of the rule - child puts in many many hours of practice driving with responsible adult (licensed instructor or parent/guardian, over age 21) supervising in the front passenger seat.
Trust me. The role of responsible adult can be hair-raising. It's not the kid's driving, per se, but the biting the tongue that is so difficult (I still remember the first trip down to the Zoo with son in the driver's seat... I-25 to I-76 to I-270 to I-70 is not fun for me, and I had to calmly and quietly direct him???) So, naturally, the only persons who are willing to put out the inconvenience, time, and lost years of life in stress are the parents of these children.
And this law is certainly better than how it was when I was a kid... When I was a senior in high school, my parents essentially handed me the key, took me to the courthouse in downtown Fairfield, Iowa and said, take the test. Zero experience, and they figured I'd get a driver's license. (Only, they were wrong; when the tester said, "Make a left turn at this stoplight," he clued in that I was clueless when I waited through three cycles of the light trying to figure out how to get through the unbroken traffic. But gee, in the county I lived in, there were no stoplights, so I'd no idea how a left turn worked.) I didn't attempt to drive again until I was married - and that's a sure sign of true love right there folks - my husband taught me how to drive. As we were both still in undergrad then, during one visit out to his parents we stopped by the little courthouse in his extremely rural home town, and I managed to go sufficiently around the block (one way streets... no left turns) and park head-in. Voila! My first licence. I freely admit that I was a danger to society for a while. But a four-year stay in Los Angeles cured me of all driving fears and ills.
But I digress. By the time my son had his fifty hours under his belt and got his real licence, he was an excellent driver, experienced in day and night, rain and ice, stick and automatic, and having towed a one-and-a-half-ton trailer to Iowa and back while his siblings mostly-didn't-keep-it-to-a-dull-roar in back. It was with confidence that we turned him loose on the streets.
The law that requires kids to get the 50 hours drive practice (it is 50, isn't it? or some such big number, I don't exactly recall) makes sense.
But it makes an important assumption - that a parent who wants a child to learn to drive will also have the ability to fulfill the role of terror-stricken front-seat passenger.
So what happens when a child's parent is blind? Is the child barred (while yet a teen) from obtaining a license? Is this fair to the child? To the parent? Is this a violation of the spirit of the Disabilities Act?
The girl's 80-year-old grandparent is willing, but the State says "nothing doing; it has to be a parent or guardian." So, couldn't some smart attorney draw up some paperwork giving a limited power of guardianship or some such to the grandparent, specifically for the purpose of the learner's permit? And why couldn't somebody have figured out a solution with fairness before they had to sue the State?
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