Lawsuit shuts down daytime curfew

Tuesday, February 9, 1999

Lawsuit shuts down daytime curfew

SCHOOLS: Ordinance to combat truancy during school hours found
unconstitutional

By Maria Paul

Daily Bruin Contributor

Monrovia’s daytime curfew ordinance – the model for dozens of
anti-truancy statutes nationwide – was struck down on Jan. 28.

The daytime curfew law, which allowed Los Angeles police to stop
unsupervised youth between 8:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. and hand out
$135 citations to truants, was imitated by several hundred cities
nationwide.

"It was certainly the most prominent curfew known in the
country," said Michael Farris, president of the Home School Legal
Defense Association, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. "And,
the most aggressively enforced."

For example, one teenage boy was stopped five times in one
day.

The injunction resulted from a lawsuit filed by a combination of
home-school and private-school children and their parents. They
argued that the ordinance was unconstitutional on the grounds that
it gave police the right to stop any unsupervised youth on the
street during school hours.

Others complained that adults who look younger than 18 could be
stopped under the ordinance.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl ruled that the
ordinance contradicted state law and could not be enforced.

She cited numerous situations in which a youth could be ticketed
in Monrovia, while being legitimately absent under state law.

For example, a 14-year-old boy walking unaccompanied, but with
school permission to attend a religious service in his community,
could be fined and required to appear in court.

Last year, schools were given a financial reason to get students
back into class. School funding had previously been based on the
number of students present during the school year. Last year,
however, the state stopped including excused absences in its tally
of how many students a school served.

In response to this, schools adopted a number of programs to try
to combat the truancy problem.

The Abolish Truancy Program, adopted by 16 Los Angeles County
School Districts, places the blame for habitual truancy on the
parents.

The program orders them to stop writing notes claiming sickness
for children who are not really sick, to not let them stay home
when they cry, and to question them when they have
stomachaches.

Those who fail to heed repeated warnings to get their children
in school face up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

But others feel that the concentration on the punishment of
parents and students takes the responsibility away from
schools.

"There are bigger issues," said Rick Allen, a UCLA graduate
student of education. "Why do truancy problems happen in such large
numbers in inner-city areas?"

He described the habitually truant student as one who "feels
alienated." He said that schools fail to meet the needs of such
students.

"Educators need to work to connect more with students and tap
into their feelings of connection to their school, rather than
fining them and putting them in jail," Allen said.

Although it may make sense to use law enforcement in regulating
the behavior of particularly unruly and chronically truant
teenagers, James Catterall, an education professor, has another
suggestion.

"The development of a curriculum that is more interesting and
alive would also be likely to improve attendance rates," he said.
"Patterns get established over a long period of time.

"Even if they make it to college, students who were truant in
high school will be unlikely to succeed if they maintain their
patterns of scattered attendance in college," Catterall said.

Some UCLA students, though, don’t see it this way.

"I have a lot of friends who never go to class, especially if
it’s early in the morning, or on a Friday," said first-year
undeclared student Stephanie Lin.

"They never show up to lecture, but they ace the class by
studying the book and acing the final," she said.

Although he admitted that this is often possible, Catterall said
that such a detachment between a student and the classroom isn’t
the most efficient method of gaining an education.

"I would hope that classes are organized to benefit students who
both attend lecture and do well on the final," he said.

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