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Cinderella had to be in by midnight, but for San Antonio youths the magic wears off at 11 p.m.

Thanks to a recent change in the city's curfew laws, beginning this week, youths ages 10-17 must be home by 11 p.m. or risk being cited for a curfew violation.

"They should have let us know more about it," Jay Arredondo, 15, said as he waited for his parents to pick him up from a late movie about 11 p.m. "But I guess we'll learn our lessons the hard way."

The hard way could mean a Class C misdemeanor carrying a fine of $50-$500 for parents and a trip to municipal court for the youth. City prosecutor Eric Burns was in court this week handling cases before Municipal Court Judge Dan Kassahn. Burns said he is tough on juvenile offenders because he wants to set them on the right path.

"I'm pretty rough with them," Burns said. "I'm not their teachers, I'm not their parents, and I'm not their friends. I'm the prosecutor."

Burns said he made mistakes when he was a teen, so he tries to teach from experience.

In court Tuesday, he talked to a 16-year-old Highlands High School student caught at the mall during the day when she was supposed to be in school. The curfew ordinance also includes a daytime curfew provision, requiring students to be in school between 9 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on school days. The teen said she was bored with school, so she took a bus to the mall.

"I am being honest with you," he told her. "You never want to see me again. This is a place you never want to come back to. It's your personal hell. Keep yourself in school."

Burns said he usually asks the court to sentence the teens to community service and life skills classes.

The objective of the law is to keep teenagers safe, said Detective Donna Willborn, who handles curfew violations for the San Antonio Police Department.

"We don't want them to be victims of crime," Willborn said. "And so the best thing we can do is if we prevent them from being victims of crime, we benefit everybody."

The previous curfew law said youths ages 13-16 must be home before 10:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and before midnight Friday and Saturday. The new ordinance sets the same curfew time - 11 p.m. - seven days a week.

Bexar County also has a curfew, which covers the unincorporated areas. County commissioners voted Tuesday to eliminate the daytime curfew, 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, when school is not in session. The commissioners also decided to keep the previous night curfew as it was: 10:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and before midnight Friday and Saturday.

Both the city's and Bexar County's curfews make exceptions for school, government and religious activities, emergency errands, or if the minor is coming from work or some type of volunteer work. Youths also may be out if accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Suzy Peters is a single mother who works at the White Rabbit entertainment venue near St. Mary's Street and East Ashby Place. Graffiti paintings light up the dark walls where people of all ages hang around to get their daily dose of live music and maybe even eat some pizza.

"Some ways it (the changes to the curfew law) makes sense, but it also doesn't," Peters said. "They got it right the first time. There are a lot of emancipated 15-year-olds now, and they should not have to be harassed. It was a bad compromise."

Although parents drop off their children at venues like the White Rabbit, they don't necessarily know about the change in the curfew, Peters said.

"Most kids and parents don't even know, and we are going to assume they are allowed to be here," Peters said. "Parents drop them off and pick them up, so they are aware where they are."

Priscilla Fuentes, 17, was at the White Rabbit for a late-night concert. She said she expects to see an increase in curfew violations because the time is so early.

"Kids aren't the problem. Adults break laws all the time, too," Fuentes said. "But teens want to break the laws. They'll probably do it even more now."

Councilman Justin Rodriguez, who advocated changing the ordinance, said that an increase in property crimes, such as graffiti, also added to the need for a change in the curfew. He said the council wanted to figure out if there was a connection with teens wandering out late at night because the city spends about $2 million in graffiti cleanup per year.

Rodriguez also said he doesn't believe graffiti is created by only teens and that the law was not written to get them into a lot of trouble.

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