La Verne : Truancy Fine Upheld

A La Verne mother who was found guilty last month of willfully permitting her 14-year-old daughter to remain truant has been ordered to pay a $100 fine despite her daughter’s improved attendance at Bonita High School. Pomona Municipal Court Commissioner Marc Lauper, who ruled April 30 that Sandra Mejia, 34, had violated state law in allowing her daughter to skip all but four days of school since September, decided at a review session last week not to waive the fine even though school administrators testified that the ninth-grader had been attending classes regularly since her mother’s conviction.

Mejia, the mother of four, has been walking her oldest daughter to school and escorting her to classes throughout the day, said Marge Bromfield, coordinator of child welfare and attendance for the Bonita Unified School District. She said that Mejia’s daughter had not missed school since the court ruling last month. Lauper, who had said he would reconsider the fine at the May 16 review session, maintained that the penalty was appropriate. “I just felt she waited too long to get involved,” he said. “We got her attention now.”