USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Norwood > Norwood annual report 1895-1899 > Part 43
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SECTION 8. Any person who employs or exhibits, or who sells, ap- prentices, or gives away for the purpose of employing or exhibiting, a child under fifteen years of age, in dancing, playing on musical instru- ments, singing, walking on a wire or rope, or riding or performing as a gymnast, contortionist, or acrobat, in any circus or theatrical exhibition, or in any public place whatsoever, or who causes, procures, or encourages any such child to engage therein, shall be punished by fine not exceed- ing two hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail not ex- ceeding six months: prorided, that nothing in this section shall be con- strued to prevent the education of children in vocal and instrumental music, or their employment as musicians in any church, chapel, or school, or school exhibition, or to prevent their taking part in any concert or musical exhibition on the special written permission of the mayor and aldermen of a city or of the selectmen of a town.
SECTION 9. No license shall be granted for a theatrical exhibition or public show in which children under fifteen years of age are employed as acrobats, contortionists, or in any feats of gymnastics or equestrianism, or in which such children belonging to the public schools are employed, or allowed to take part as performers on the stage in any capacity, or where, in the opinion of the board authorized to grant licenses, such children are employed in such a manner as to corrupt their morals or impair their physical health; but nothing herein contained shall prevent the giving of special permission as provided by the preceding section.
TRUANT CHILDREN AND ABSENTEES FROM SCHOOL.
SECTION 10. Each town shall make all needful provisions and arrange- ments concerning habitual truants and children between seven and fifteen years of age who may be found wandering about in the streets or public places therein, having no lawful occupation or business, not attending school, and growing up in ignorance; and shall make such by-laws.as shall be most conducive to the welfare of such children, and to the good order of such town; and shall provide suitable places for the confine- ment, discipline, and instruction of such children; such by-laws may be approved by the judge of the probate court of the county, as well as in the manner provided for the approval of other by-laws by section twenty- one of chapter twenty-seven. [Repealed.]
SECTION 11. The school committee of each town shall appoint and fix the compensation of two or more suitable persons, to be designated truant officers, who shall, under the direction of said committee, inquire into all cases arising under such by-laws, and shall alone be authorized, in
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case of violation thereof, to make complaint and carry into execution the judgment thereon; and who may serve all legal processes issued by the courts in pursuance of such by-laws or of seetions ten to sixteen in- clusive, but who shall not be entitled to receive any fees for such service.
SECTION 12. Any minor convicted under a by-law made under section ten of being an habitual truant, or of wandering about in the streets and public places of a eity or town, having no lawful employment or busi- ness, not attending school, and growing up in ignorance, shall be eom- mitted to any institution of instruction or suitable situation provided for the purpose, under the authority of said section or by-law, for a term not exceeding two years.
SECTION 13. Police, district, or municipal eourts, trial justices, and judges of probate courts shall have jurisdiction, within their respective counties, of the offences deseribed in sections ten and twelve.
SECTION 14. If three or more towns in any eounty so require, the county commissioners shall establish at the expense of the county at convenient places therein, other than the jail or house of correetion, tru- ant schools for the confinement, discipline, and instruction of minor children convicted under the provisions of sections ten and twelve, and shall make suitable provisions for the government and control, and for the ap- pointment of proper teachers and officers thereof; but if three or more eities or towns in cach of two or three contiguous counties, or in ease of Norfolk, Bristol, Barnstable, and Plymouth counties, of four contiguous counties, so require, the county commissioners of such counties shall, at the ex- pense of the same, establish at a convenient plaee therein a nnion truant school, to be organized and controlled by the chairmen of the county commissioners of such counties, in the manner provided for the govern- ment and control of county truant schools by eounty commissioners; and any county so uniting with another county or counties in the support of a union truant school shall not be required to support a truant sehool of its own.
SECTION 15. A town may assign any such truant sehool, or, with the assent of the state board of health, lunacy, and charity, the state primary school, as the place of confinement, discipline and instruetion of children so convicted; and shall pay for their support therein sueh sum, not ex- ceeding two dollars a week for cach child, as the county commissioners or the trustees of the state primary and reform schools respectively shall determine.
SECTION 16. Children so committed may, upon satisfactory proof of amendment, or for other sufficient cause, be discharged from the state primary school by said state board, and from other places of confinement by the judge or justice who committed them.
SECTION 17. The school committees of the several towns shall annually report to the secretary of the board of education whether their towns
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have made the provisions required by law relating to truants and ab- sentees from school.
CARE AND EDUCATION OF NEGLECTED CHILDREN.
SECTION 18. Each town may, and every town containing five thousand or more inhabitants shall, make all needful provisions and arrangements concerning children under sixteen years of age, who, by reason of the neglect, crime, drunkenness, or other vices of parents, or from orphanage, are suffered to be growing up without salutary parental control and edu- cation, or in circumstances exposing them to lead idle and dissolute lives; and may also make all such by-laws respecting such children as shall be dcemed most conducive to their welfare and to the good order of the city or town.
SECTION 19. The selectmen of towns containing five thousand or more inhabitants, and of other towns availing themselves of the provisions of sections eighteen and twenty-one, inclusive, shall appoint suitable persons to make complaints of violations of by-laws adopted under the preceding section; and the persons so appointed, and the officers and duly appointed agents of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, shall alone be authorized to make such complaints; and the persons so appointed shall alone be authorized to make complaints under the following section.
SECTION 20. A judge of the superior court, or of a police, district, or municipal court, or a trial justice, upon proof that any child under six- teen years of age, by reason of orphanage, or of the neglect, crime, drunkenness, or other vice of parents, is so growing up, may order such child to such institution of instruction, or other place assigned for the purpose, as may be provided under section eighteen, by the town in which such child resides, to be there kept, educated, and cared for, for a term not extending beyond the age of twenty-one years for boys, or eighteen years for girls.
SECTION 21. When the parents of a child committed under the pre- ceding section have reformed and are leading orderly and industrious lives, and are in a condition to exercise salutary parental control over such child, and to provide him with proper education and employment, or when, said parents being dead, any person offers to make such suitable provision for the care, nurture, and education of such child as will con- duce to the public welfare, and will give security for the performance of the same satisfactory to the directors, trustees, overseers, or other board, having charge of the institution to which such child is committed, they may discharge him to the parents or to such other person. ,
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CARE AND PROTECTION OF DESTITUTE, ABANDONED AND ABUSED CHILDREN.
SECTION 22. The judge of the probate court of any county, when it appears that a minor under fourteen years of age resident therein is with- out a guardian, and is entirely abandoned, or treated with gross and habitual cruelty, by the parent or other person having the care or custody of him, or is illegally `deprived of liberty, may appoint as his guardian the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children for such period as seems fit to the judge; and said society shall thereupon be- come entitled to the custody of such child to the exclusion of any other person, but shall not be entitled to his property. Said judge may at any time, for good cause, revoke such appointment.
SECTION 23. The parents, surviving parent, or guardian of a child under fourteen years of age, if unable to support him, may by an agree- ment in writing, signed, and fixing the terms of the custody, place him in the charge of said society, which shall thereupon have custody of him as provided in the preceding section.
SECTION 24. Upon the complaint of said society that a child under five years of age has been abandoned and deserted in a street or public place, or in a vacant building, a judge of any court, within his jurisdiction, may give the custody of such child for a period not exceeding thirty days to said society; which shall thereupon give notice thereof, under direction of said judge, by advertisement in some newspaper published in the county where such child is found; and such child, if claimed by its parents, parent, or guardian, may be returned to them by said judge.
SECTION 25. Nothing in the three preceding sections shall be con- strued to oblige said society to receive the custody of any child.
SECTION 26. In Hampden county the provisions of the four preceding sections shall in all respects be applicable to the Hampden County Chil- dren's Aid Association in like manner as to the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
SECTION 27. Nothing contained in the five preceding sections shall be deemed to limit the powers of the state board of health, lunacy and charity.
[ Section 10 of this act has been repealed.]
[ACTS OF 1898 -CHAPTER 494.]
AN ACT TO REGULATE THE EMPLOYMENT OF LABOR.
SECTION 1. No child under fourteen years of age shall be employed in any factory, workshop or mercantile establishment. No such child shall be employed in any work performed for wages or other compensa-
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tion, to whomsoever payable, during the hours when the public schools of the town or city in which he resides are in session, nor be employed at any work before the hour of six o'clock in the morning or after the hour of seven o'clock in the evening.
SECTION 2. No child under sixteen years of age shall be employed in any factory, workshop or mercantile establishment unless the person or corporation employing him procures and keeps on file and accessible to truant officers of the town or city, and to the district police and inspectors of factories, an age and schooling certificate as hereinafter prescribed, and keeps two complete lists of all such children employed therein, one on file and one conspicuously posted near the principal entrance of the building in which such children are employed, and also keeps on file a complete list, and sends to the superintendent of schools, or, where there is no superintendent, to the school committee, the names of all minors employed therein who cannot read at sight and write legibly simple sentences in the English language.
SECTION 3. An age and schooling certificate shall be approved only by the superintendent of schools or by a person authorized by him in writing, or, where there is no superintendent of schools, by a person authorized by the school committee: provided, that no member of a school committee or other person authorized as aforesaid shall have au- thority to approve such certificate for any child then in or about to enter his own employment, or the employment of a firm or corporation of which he is a member, officer or employee. The person approving the certificate shall have authority to administer the oath provided for therein, but no fee shall be charged therefor.
SECTION 4. An age and schooling certificate shall not be approved un- less satisfactory evidence is furnished by the last school census, the cer- tificate of birth or baptism of such child, the register of birth of such child with a town or city clerk, or in some other manner, that such child is of the age stated in the certificate.
SECTION 5. The age and schooling certificate of a child under sixteen years of age shall not be approved and signed until he presents to the person authorized to approve and sign the same an employment ticket as hereinafter prescribed, duly filled out and signed. A duplicate of each age and schooling certificate shall be filled out and shall be kept on file by the school committee. Any explanatory matter may be printed with such certificate in the discretion of the school committee or superintendent of schools. The employment ticket and the age and schooling certificate shall be separately printed, and shall be filled out, signed, and held or sur- rendered, as indicated in the following forms :
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EMPLOYMENT TICKET, LAWS OF 1898.
When [name of child] , height [feet and inches] ,com- plexion [fair or dark], hair [color ] , presents an age and schooling certificate duly signed, I intend to employ [him or her].
[Signature of intending employer or agent.]
[Town or city and date.]
AGE AND SCHOOLING CERTIFICATE, LAWS OF 1898.
This certifies that I am the [father, mother, guardian or custodian] of [name of child] , and that [he or she] was born at [name of town or city] , in the county of [name of county, if known] , and state [or country] of , on the [day and year of birth] , and is now [number of years and months] old.
[Signature of father, mother, guardian or custodian.] [Town or city and date.]
Then personally appeared before me the above-named [name of person signing] , and made oath that the foregoing certificate by [him or her] signed is true to the best of [his or her] knowledge and belief. 1 hereby approve the foregoing certificate of [name of child] , height [feet and inches] , complexion [fair or dark], hair [color] , having no sufficient reason to doubt that [he or she] is of the age therein certified. I hereby certify that [he or she] [can or cannot] read at sight and [can or cannot] write legibly simple sentences in the English lan- guage.
This certificate belongs to [name of child in whose behalf it is drawn] , and is to be surrenderd to [him or her] whenever [he or she] leaves the service of the corporation or employer holding the same; but if not claimed by said child within thirty days from such time it shall be returned to the superintendent of schools, or, where there is no superin- tendent of schools, to the school committee.
[Signature of person authorized to approve and sign, with official char- acter or authority.]
[Town or city and date.]
In the case of a child who cannot read at sight and write legibly simple sentences in the English language the certificate shall continue as follows, after the word "language":
I hereby certify that [he or she] is regularly attending the [name] public evening school. This certificate shall continue in force only so long as the regular attendance of said child at the evening school is endorsed weekly by a teacher thereof.
SECTION 6. Whoever employs a child under sixteen years of age, and whoever having under his control a child under such age permits such chill to be employed, in violation of section one or two of this act, shall
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for such offence be fined not more than fifty dollars; and whoever con- tinucs to employ any child in violation of either of said sections of this act after being notified by a truant officer or an inspector of factories thereof, shall for every day thereafter that such employment continues be fined not less than five nor more than twenty dollars. A failure to produce to a truant officer or inspector of factories any age and schooling certifi- cate or list required by this act shall be prima facie evidence of the illegal: employment of any person whose age and schooling certificate is not pro- duced or whose name is not so listed. Any corporation or employer re- taining any age and schooling certificate in violation of section five of this. act shall be fined ten dollars. Every person authorized to sign the cer- tificate prescribed by section five of this act who knowingly certifies to. any materially false statement therein shall be fined not more than fifty dollars.
SECTION 7. No person shall employ any minor over fourteen years of age, and no parent, guardian or custodian shall permit to be employed any such minor under his control, who cannot read at sight and write legibly simple sentences in the English language, while a public evening school is maintained in the town or city in which such minor resides, unless such minor is a regular attendant at such evening school or at a day school: provided, that upon presentation by such minor of a certificate signed by a regular practising physician, and satisfactory to the superintendent of schools, or, where there is no superintendent of schools, the school com- mittee, showing that the physical condition of such minor would render such attendance in addition to daily labor prejudicial to his health, said superintendent of schools or school committee shall issue a permit author- izing the employment of such minor for such period as said superintendent of schools or school committees may determine. Said superintendent of schools or school committee, or teachers acting under authority thereof, may excuse any absence from such evening school arising from justifiable cause. Any person who employs a minor in violation of the provisions. of this section shall forfeit for each offence not more than one hundred dollars for the use of the evening schools of such town or city. Any parent, guardian or custodian who permits to be employed any minor under his control in violation of the provisions of this section shall forfeit not more than twenty dollars for the use of the evening schools of such town or city.
SECTION 8. Truant officers may visit the factories, workshops and mer- cantile establishments in their several towns and cities and ascertain whether any minors are employed therein contrary to the provisions of this act, and they shall report any eases of such illegal employment to the school eommittee and to the chief of the district police, or to the in- spector of factories for the district. Inspectors of faetories and truant officers may require that the age and schooling certificates and lists pro-
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vided for in this act, of minors employed in such factories, workshops or mercantile establishments, shall be produced for their inspection. Com- plaints for offences under this act shall be brought by inspectors of factorics.
SECTION 9. Sections thirteen, fourteen, sixteen to twenty-five inclu- sive, sixty-seven, sixty-nine and seventy of chapter five hundred and eight of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and ninety-four, and all other acts and parts of acts inconsistent herewith, are hereby repealed.
SECTION 10. This act shall take effect on the first day of September in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-eight. [Approred June 2, 1898.]
[ACTS OF 1898-CHAPTER 496.]
AN ACT RELATIVE TO SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND TRUANCY.
SECTION 1. Every town and city shall maintain for at least thirty- two weeks in the year a sufficient number of schools for the instruction of all the children who may legally attend a public school therein. Such schools shall be taught by teachers of competent ability and good morals, and shall give instruction in orthography, reading, writing, the English language and grammar, geography, arithmetic, drawing, the history of the United States, physiology and hygiene, including special instruction as to the effect of alcoholic drinks and of stimulants and narcotics on the human system, and good behavior. Bookkeeping, algebra, geometry, one or more foreign languages, the elements of the natural sciences, kinder- garten training, manual training, agriculture, sewing, cooking, vocal music, physical training, civil government, ethics and such other subjects as the school committee deem expedient, may be taught in the public schools.
SECTION 2. Every city and every town of five hundred families or houscholders according to the latest public census taken by the authority either of the Commonwealth or of the United States shall, and any other town may, maintain a high school, adequately equipped, to be kept by a principal and such assistants as may be needed, of competent ability and good morals, who shall give instruction in such subjects designated in section one as it may be deemed expedient to teach in the high school, and in such additional subjects as may be required for the general purpose of training and culture, as well as for the special purpose of preparing pupils for admission to state normal schools, technical schools and colleges. Such high school shall maintain one or more courses of study, at least four years in length, and shall be kept for the benefit of all the inhab- itants of the town or city, forty wecks at least, exclusive of vacations, in each year. A town may if it chooses meet only a portion of the fore-
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going requirements in its own high school: provided, that it shall make adequate provisions for meeting the rest of said requirements in the high school of another town or any city.
SECTION 3. Any town of less than five hundred families or house- holders in which a public high school or a school of corresponding grade is not maintained shall pay for the tuition of any child who resides in said town and who attends the high school of another town or city, pro- vided the approval of such attendance by the school committee of the- town in which the child resides is first obtained. If any town in which. a public high school or a school of corresponding grade is not maintained neglects or refuses to pay for tuition as provided in this section such town shall be liable therefor to the parent or guardian of the child furnished with such tuition, if the parent or guardian has paid for the same, and otherwise to the town or city furnishing the same, in an action of con- tract. No member of the school committee of a town in which a public- high school or a school of corresponding grade is not maintained shall re- fuse to approve the attendance of any child residing in such town in the. high school of some other town or city if such child has completed the course of instruction provided by the former town, and, in the opinion of the superintendent of schools or the school committee of said former town, is properly qualified to enter such high school. If the school committee of such town refuses to grant such approval such town shall be liable- for the tuition of such child, in the same manner and to the same extent. as if the parent or guardian of such child had obtained the approval of the school committee. Any town not maintaining a public high school or a school of corresponding grade, but affording high school instruction- by sending pupils to other towns, may pay the necessary transportation. expenses of such pupils. Any town the valuation of which does not cx- ceed five hundred thousand dollars shall be entitled to receive from the. treasury of the Commonwealth all necessary sums which have been actually expended for high school tuition under the provisions of this. section. provided such expenditure shall be certified under oath to the. state board of education by the school committee of such town within- thirty days from the date of such expenditure, and provided such high school shall have been approved by the state board of education.
SECTION 4. Every town and city of twenty thousand or more inhab- itants shall maintain as part of both its clementary and its high school system the teaching of manual training.
SECTION 5. Any town or city may, and every town and city of ten thousand or more inhabitants shall, maintain annually evening schools for the instruction of persons over fourteen years of age, in orthography, read- ing, writing, the English language and grammar, geography, arithmetic, industrial drawing, both freehand and mechanical, the history of the United States, physiology and hygiene and good behavior. Such other
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subjects may be taught in such schools as the school committee deem expedient.
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