Parents Escape Jail Time for ‘Loud’ Kids in Backyard

By Anastacia Mott Austin

It’s what kids look forward to all year: summer vacation. Time to relax, play outside, go swimming in the backyard pool…in short, have fun.

Not if you’re the children of New York couple Rachel and William Poczatek. Their two girls, Ashley and Chloe, aged 11 and 5, love to play outside in the family’s above-ground pool. But their shrieks of childish delight were not appreciated by the neighbors in their Bayville, Long Island village.

Last month the couple received a violation notice for not keeping their children more quiet. The order stated that the girls were "screaming and shouting," and creating "an unreasonable nuisance" in the village.

When the noise level didn’t meet the satisfaction of the neighbors, the Poczateks were then served a summons to appear in court. If convicted of violating the noise ordinance, they could have faced a two-week jail sentence, a fine of $250 for each day that the noise continued, or both.

The ordinance is designed to protect the village from noise caused by "…the shouting and crying of peddlers, hawkers, and vendors which disturbs the peace and quiet of the neighborhood."

Said the couple’s attorney, Andrew Campanelli, "The statute didn’t apply [in this case]."

Fortunately for them, the village justice agreed with the Poczateks that their children’s squealing did not fit the definition of disturbing the peace and dismissed the charges yesterday.

The couple was shocked by the whole episode. "I don’t know what the solution is," Rachel Poczatek told reporters. "Should I muzzle my children?" After saying that she did her best to keep them reasonably quiet, Poczatek added, "I don’t feel my kids are doing anything wrong by being outside."

Bayville Mayor Victoria Siegel told the press that the regulation has also sometimes been used against residents who have excessively barking dogs, loud parties, or who mow their lawns too early in the morning. But this is the first case she has heard of involving loud children. "I’m certainly not happy about kids not being able to play in their backyard," Siegel stated. "But something had to be happening in order for people to have complained."

Mark Kostakis, a neighbor of the Poczateks, certainly agrees. "This is it for me," he told reporters. "I don’t work 12 hours a day to come home and listen to this [expletive]."

Another neighbor concurred. Neighbor Sheila Brown said, "I have five dogs. Five dogs don’t make this much noise. This is not something that started yesterday. They have been asked politely, but this is an ongoing issue far beyond children just playing in the pool."

But other neighbors said that the noise from the girls’ poolside playing was just normal summertime laughter. Next-door neighbor Albert Brunetti told reporters that the girls were usually well-behaved. "Children are supposed to play and have fun."

William Poczatek doesn’t understand what all the fuss is about. "What, are you telling me that a kid can’t make noise?" he said to the press.

But he does want to be able to coexist peacefully with his village neighbors, adding, "Yes, we will try to keep them quieter."