Truancy Laws Gone Too Far

In Provo, UT a law is being considered that would criminalize truant youth and children should they be caught off campus or away from their schooling during school hours. This law would also require adults to call the city police to report violators. The intent behind the considered law is to confront the growing gang issue in this central Utah city.
All of the reader responses prior to my submission were filled with shock; and many feared the repercussions pertaining to home schooled children and youth, and how ridiculous it would be to arrest six year-olds and give them a police record just for being on the city streets during school hours. Some of the respondents even went into a 'Police State, Socialism' rant that was entirely counterproductive to any serious discussion. Yesterday I wrote the following response to the article in the Deseret News:

"First of all, the city is looking for ways to fight increasing gang activity. This idea isn't the smartest, I'll give you that; but to jump way ahead and feign horror at children being arrested is not only foolish, it's downright ridiculous.
Instead of being offended at the "potential" of this proposal, why don't you form community meetings to brainstorm legitimate ideas to address the issue, present them to the school board (leaving the city govt out of the discussion), then both sides work to find viable solutions.
The answer to this lies not in legislation, but in a cooperative effort between the community and the school district. It seems, after all, that most parents are feeling like their voice is lost--and it has somewhat, because they now complain loudly but never step up and start grassroot efforts to challenge school officials, city leaders etc. So stop complaining and step up! Become a leader who enacts change!
And JMT (a respondent on this board), please leave your "1984" scare tactics out and present an intelligent, thoughtful discussion that goes beyond an 'I'm right, you're wrong' mentality that only seeks to instill fear and remove rational thought. "

Of the eighteen responses after mine, not a single one commented on the merits of my proposal; instead continuing the fear-mongering that all of the earlier posts had provided. Since there was no rational thought amongst the lot, I decided to write another response today.

"RE: JMT "Two kids fighting over a remote; the wishbone from Thanksgiving turkey; candy at Christmas; who saw Lagoon first; playing fetch with the dog; Grandpas attention, etc..."

This type of thinking is irresponsible. It seeks only to create fear and suspicion.
Please, leave the addressing of community and national issues to the adults because clearly, individuals such as this only want to make us afraid without offering any sort of leadership that might help us all to climb off of the slippery slope this nation now finds itself upon.

If you're concerned about issues and law-making, write, call or email your elected representatives at every level! Make sure you take part in the electoral system we all enjoy. Start community efforts to enact change. Do something!--Because doing nothing but complaining gets us nowhere."

So far, I have not gotten any retort.