Parents in Arms
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Parents in Arms was a community organization active in the 1980s in Seattle which petitioned the Seattle City Council for the creation of the Teen Dance Ordinance. Seattle-area attorney David Crosby established it in 1985 when his 14-year-old son Ian ran away from home after various acts of teenage rebellion.[1] The closure of The Monastery, a church and disco with gay youth patrons, was an objective of the organization.[2]
In fall 1984 parents David C. Crosby and Maureen Crosby became concerned that Ian, their 14-year-old son and only child, had been leaving their Renton, Washington home to party at teen nightlife clubs in Seattle.[1] Crosby was an attorney, and he used his knowledge of legal systems to organize a civic response.[1]
Ian began to engage in teenage rebellion[1] He offended his parents by getting a Mohawk hairstyle.[1] During arguments Ian recited lyrics at his parents from the David Bowie song, "Changes", which also upset them.[1] He became disinterested in school and got poor grades.[1] Because of arguments with his parents he preferred to spend as much time away from home as possible, only returning there to sleep when he had nowhere else to go.[1] He tried living at home with minimal parental interaction so his parents began to enforce rules on him.[1] After some time his parents gave him an ultimatum: he could join troubled teenager programs in either wilderness therapy or drug rehabilitation.[1] Instead, Ian ran away from home to live as a homeless youth on the streets in Seattle.[1][2] When Ian was free of his parents, one of his activities was attending nightlife events at the Monastery.[2] Crosby eventually found Ian and promised that he would not send him away.[1] Instead he sent him to drug rehabilitation in the Midwestern United States, which was another region of the country.[2] Ian left that treatment facility as a runaway on December 31, 1984.[2] While a runaway, Ian moved in with an adult gay man in the gay village of Capitol Hill, Seattle.[3] While his son was a runaway, Crosby asked George Freeman, who was operator of the Monastery, to prohibit his son from that organization.[2] In response, Freeman said that at age 14 Ian had a right to leave his parents' home if he wished.[2] Crosby gave Freeman a written letter making requests about Ian and the Monastery, and in response, Freeman made copies of that letter which he shared freely with anyone at the Monastery.[2] Crosby took offense at the publication of his requests.[2]
Organization goals
Because of Ian's behavior and his views on Seattle nightlife, Crosby established Parents in Arms as a civic organization to seek new city regulations.[4] Crosby set the tone of the organization as militant, ready to fight, in support of police and prosecutors, and in opposition to nightlife.[4] The first goal of Parents in Arms was to close the Monastery.[4]
Crosby complained that in Seattle, young people who wished to leave home could find support systems outside their families to help them do so.[4] He also complained that drug rehabilitation centers would only admit teenagers who consented to treatment, when he felt that parents should be able to involuntarily commit their minor children if they were engaged in substance abuse.[4] Crosby wanted a teen curfew law in Seattle.[4] Parents in Arms viewed teen nightclubs as corrupting to youth and sought to eliminate them.[5] Crosby said that the age for clubs should be 16.[6]
Activities that Parents in Arms supported instead included joining youth farming organizations such as 4-H or Future Farmers of America.[5] Life as portrayed in the 1960s Andy Griffith Show was also described as a model.[5] Supporters felt that rural teenagers had better lifestyles because they were cleaner and healthier, and unlike the scruffy Seattle Center youths who had wild hairstyles and wore makeup.[5] While supporters recognized that rural teenagers also used illicit drugs, the parents felt that drug use was more problematic in urban settings.[5]