[AT] OT laws as written versus as enforced was towing tractors with a pickup

[Steve W.]

James Peck wrote:
> The compulsory education laws reflect a wide gap between the laws as
> written and as enforced. The law says children under 16 have to go to
> school. I used to know a man who received a felony conviction for
> home schooling his children.  Things have relaxed since then.
> 
> Amish where I was from will only go to public school through the 8th
> grade. Most people are 13 or 14 when they finish 8th grade. Until
> they reach age 16, Amish 8th grade finishers are officially truants.
> The Ohio legal system looks the other way. I did once listen to a
> woman who had been born Amish tell of truant officer interaction in
> the 1920's so maybe the overlooking is a more recent thing.
> 
> The Amish faith discourages vocations that require licenses. I have
> never known Amish men to drive trucks for a living. They will drive
> tractors and operate construction equipment as employees.
> 
> Common Law, largely bypassed, allows anyone to use the public right
> of way, precedence is to do so on foot or by horse. 30 years ago I
> read a local newspaper article about someone who was ticketed for
> driving without insurance. They rode a horse to the county courthouse
> to pay the fine but could have walked. The people who argue in court
> that the common law lets them operate motor vehicles on the public
> right of way without an operator's license end up being found guilty.
> 
> 
> I think I have previously told the story of my neighbor, maybe 16 but
> not yet having a drivers license, running away from home on his
> step-fathers Ferguson with front loader and overdrive. Maybe the
> highway patrol would not have pulled him over and taken both to
> juvenile detention if he had not had his girlfriend sitting on the
> fender. The tractor had the loader hydraulic pump driven from the
> front of the engine. I do not think the SMV sign had come into use on
> ag equipment then, even though it was being used on buggies.
> 
> Amish buggies use electric lights and SMV signs on the back. It is a
> matter of life and death.
> 
>

The Amish here do not attend any public schools. They have there own 
schools built on private land by the church. The state has no 
jurisdiction over them due to the religious exemptions they have.
They attend school only until the 8th grade unless they are going to be 
teachers, then they attend an Amish "high school" which is more like a 
class limited college.

We have three different "orders" of Amish in the area. They each have 
their own ordnung that they follow but for the most part the Mennonites 
are the only ones who own and drive vehicles. The rest of the orders can 
be a passenger in a vehicle but not own them. As far as farm equipment 
goes it all depends on which branch they are in and what is allowed.
The "New order" here can have a tractor but it must have steel wheels 
and be speed limited as well. They can use a skid steer and own them but 
no tracked versions and again they are run on steel. They can use semi 
automated milkers and have lights on the buggies powered by batteries.

The "Old Order" however use none of that. They use oil lamps and SMV 
signs on the buggies ans hand milk as well as mostly hand harvest of 
crops. You might see a more lenient group that allows horse drawn sickle 
bars and hay loaders but now gas/diesel powered equipment but they are 
not common. About the only item that they have that is powered are 
sawmills.

With all the families around here they all seem to be good folks. Just 
have to be careful when it comes to talking to the women if there are no 
other Amish around especially if you are not well known to the men of 
the family. The women can get in trouble for talking to an "english man" 
alone if they are in a strict ordnung.

-- 
Steve W.