Do You Know the Laws of the State Where Your Child Attends College?

Many parents are busy with all of the excitement involved in sending a child off to college.  There's shopping to be done for the dorm, financial aid to finalize and the list goes on.  But what about speaking with an attorney about the laws in the state? How many parents send their children off to college without having any knowledge of the laws of that state?  I'm sure that's what happened to the parents of Ariel Delegol, a junior at Clark Atlanta University, who was arrested in Georgia for driving with a Michigan driver's licenses, which she learned is the equivalent of not having a driver's license at all.

Apparently, Michigan is one of six states that does not participate in the Non-Resident Violator Compact, a United States interstate compact used by 44 states and Washington, D.C. to process traffic citations across state borders.  Motorists cited for violations in a state that is not a member of the NRVC must post bail before being allowed to proceed.  Who knew!? Cops have discretion about how strongly to enforce this.   This particular officer chose to take a young female student into custody, fingerprint her and give her the experience of being photographed for a mug shot!  Imagine how frightening this must have been for her, and image the fury of the parents!  When KingMan and I begin his college search, the laws of the state will definitely come into play.  Though his father was a "Rattler," or Florida A & M University alum for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, because of the "Stand Your Ground Laws" and the arbitrary and racist manner in which it is enforced, I'm very hesistant about him attending a college in the state of Florida.  During the writing of this blog post, I did a quick search for a link and discovered that almost half of the states in the US have Stand Your Ground Laws.  Click here to find out which ones.  This means that a person does not have to retreat or flee a situation deemed dangerous.  Instead, one can just whip out a gun and use deadly force, like the white man who shot and killed an African-American teen in Jacksonville, Florida, because his music was too loud. “I hate that thug music,“ he is reported to have said about the loud Hip Hop music that was playing.  This kind of senseless violence can happen anywhere, but in Stand Your Ground states, if you can prove you felt your life was in danger, these actions are protected by law.   The bottom line, educating the family about the law of the state where your child will attend college must be a part of college planning.  Sadly, after reviewing with your child what to do if stopped by the police, parents may also want to upload the Mobile Justice App to the Smartphone of the future college student.  The App was created by the ACLU of California affiliate to help citizens record and report police incidents and send them directly to the ACLU’s office.  Now, all your child needs is a team of prayer warriors and he or she should be good to go.