Student Absences Jump on San Diego Protest Day

Student absences from San Diego city schools jumped sharply Tuesday, but school officials and Catholic Church leaders said they could not determine whether a one-day boycott sanctioned by Bishop of San Diego Leo T. Maher was the reason.

In letters distributed to congregations in the diocese’s churches on Sunday, Maher endorsed Tuesday’s boycott of city high schools as a way of protesting a proposed school-based health clinic that would distribute contraceptives in addition to handling routine student health needs.

Officials said 7,634 students were absent from city schools Tuesday, 1,499 more than the 6,135 who missed school last Tuesday. Total enrollment in the district is about 109,000.

But school officials said the three-day Memorial Day weekend and a flu outbreak at one school, as well as unknown factors, also may have been responsible for the 24% jump in absences over a week ago.

“It would be real hard for us to ascertain how much of that was due to the boycott,” said Richard Knott, financial accounting director for the school system. Schools normally expect higher absence rates after three-day weekends, he said.

Both the Rev. Roger Lechner, who helped a group of parents organize the boycott, and the Rev. Stephen McCall, a spokesman for Maher, agreed that the statistics are inconclusive.

School district health officials proposed the dual purpose health clinic last fall. But the plan provoked widespread opposition. In March, the school board appointed a 30-member task force to study the proposal. It is expected to issue its recommendation July 1.