Almost every weekend, it’s the same rush. Pushing the speed limit, hoping for green lights, all to get home in time for curfew. A classic part of the high school experience, a curfew is one of the most hated things by most teens. However, many parents see it as a necessary evil.

“My younger son has a curfew, he has to be home by eleven,” mom Karin Wortham said. “He cannot drive, but when he can, it won’t change for the first summer, but after that, it will probably change.”

The fact that many underclassmen cannot drive greatly affects their curfew, in fact many underclassmen without the ability to drive do not have a curfew for one simple reason.

“I don’t have a curfew, I just have to be home when my parents tell me to,” freshman Brock Bittner said. “I couldn’t go anywhere without them picking me up, so I couldn’t even break a curfew.”

Although many freshman don’t have curfews due to the fact that they cannot drive, many upperclassmen do have curfews.

“I have a curfew of 1 a.m., but its not that strictly enforced, I just come home whenever I want,” junior Blake Parker said.

Many students have more flexible curfews which can change depending on circumstances.

“My eldest daughter, Anna, has a curfew of midnight,” mom Serena Ellison said. “However, if she has a special occasion, like a concert, a party or something at her friend’s house. She simply has to keep in touch with me, and then she can come home later.”

For many students, their parents are lenient within reason.

“My curfew is ten-thirty on weeknights, and twelve-thirty on weekends,” senior Anna Ellison said. “But if I want to stay later I just call my parents and they let me stay later. It’s a reasonable curfew, and I know they’re just doing it to keep me safe.”

The parents main objective is to keep their children safe.

“I let my daughters stay out later as long as it is reasonable, and they keep in touch,” Serena Ellison said. “And I always stay up until they get home so that I’m sure they’re safe.”