RAVE BYLAW WILL GIVE PARENTS A BOOST

Your teen is out late, so late you're flipping between infuriated and
worried sick.

You call their friends. Then police. You're checking ambulances and
hospitals. You jump in the car to go looking.

Setting and enforcing a reasonable curfew has been a test for parents since
long before you were a kid.

What's new and proving more challenging is the rave scene.

All night dance parties being staged in places ranging from downtown night
clubs to out-of-town barns. For kids who love music and dancing they are
the ultimate party.

For police, youth workers and many parents they are the ultimate nightmare.

Places where so-called "club drugs" are easily available, where overdoses,
date rapes, and danger are the sub-culture to the music and vibes.

Now in what appears at first to be a case of twisted logic, Ottawa city
council is considering getting into the rave business -- perhaps going so
far as allowing city-owned arenas and community centers to be rented out by
rave promoters.

The catch is the city wants to license all raves, outlawing any of the
dances that have not been approved four weeks prior to the event.

Promoters would undergo criminal record checks, halls would be subject to
fire codes and public health standards.

Police would work with the promoters on providing adequate security. Any
unlicensed rave could be shut down and fines would range up to $5,000. A
promoter who gains a reputation for allowing drug sales or not checking for
underage IDs would be denied future licence approvals.

It's not going to solve the problem of kids breaking curfews; there will
still be some who sneak out of the house at night.

But it gives us a better chance that the event will be legitimate, as
legitimate as any of these things can be.

I'm reminded of a night waiting in an emergency department when they
wheeled in two girls found passed out in a snow bank on Bronson.

It wasn't a rave they were attending, it was a teacher- and parent-
supervised alcohol-free dance at their high school.

And I'm remembering a conversation with an Ottawa high school principal who
was highly regarded for the safety and discipline at his school. He had
recently helped a father remove his daughter from the clutches of a pimp in
Montreal.

RECRUITED AT SCHOOL DANCE

The girl, who had never been a discipline problem before, was recruited at
a school dance by a fellow student who received drugs in return for getting
girls to party at a downtown Ottawa apartment.

After a few repeat incidents of breaking her parents' curfew she was
convinced by the pimp who provided the drugs, and who had become her new
"boyfriend," that it was time to leave home and live on her own.

A short time later she was seen working the streets in Ottawa.

She disappeared when her father showed up with friends looking for her,
only to reappear later on the streets of Montreal.

Licensing raves won't do away with drug pushing, or sexual predators, but
it will make life more difficult for them.

Pimps and traffickers will still find ways to exploit vulnerable kids --
offering a place to stay when a parent lowers the boom, showering mock
friendship, gifts and drugs on their young victims.

In theory though, pushing the raves out of the underground will give us a
better chance to clean up the late-night dance scene.

Parents will still have to be vigilant, know who their kids' friends are,
and where they are. Still have to check up when Johnny or Janey say they're
going to a buddies for a "sleepover."

But licensing the raves will help, and even the best parents need help
these days.