Parents fight for boy's hot dog stand

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HOLLAND, Mich., Aug. 2 (UPI) -- The parents of a Michigan 13-year-old said they have filed a petition asking their city to allow the boy to operate a hot dog stand.

Doug and Lynette Johnson, parents of Nathan Duszynski, said they filed a petition Monday asking the Holland City Council to allow exceptions to downtown commercial zoning district rules and laws regarding children in the workplace, the Holland (Mich.) Sentinel reported Thursday.

"We never thought it would escalate to this," Doug Johnson said.

The family said Nathan's hot dog stand in the parking lot of Reliable Sports was shut down by the city due to zoning laws designed to protect downtown restaurants from competition and clarify Michigan's Youth Employment Standards Act of 1978.

"It doesn't need to be redone. It just needs to be tweaked, to come up with the times like everything else," Doug Johnson said of the 1978 act.

"You want them to stay off drugs and stay out of trouble," Lynette Johnson said of minors. "Let them work."