Supreme Court Hears Case on Detaining Truancy Suspects

The California Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a case in which the justices are being asked to permit police to detain and question young people whose appearance reasonably leads to suspicion that they are truants.

Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Brett G. London urged the court to overturn an appellate ruling that limited such detentions to situations in which officers have “actual knowledge” that the youth is absent from school. The ruling, if upheld, would “derail” the primary mechanism for enforcing compulsory public education in California, he said.

But Donald J. Ayoob, an Orange County deputy public defender, said that the privacy rights of young people are at stake and that police should be required to take other factors into account before stopping suspected truants--such as whether they are loitering or engaged in some other suspicious activity and whether they are with companions also appearing of school age.

Los Angeles Deputy Public Defender Susan L. Burrell said that with the initiation of year-round school sessions it will be increasingly difficult to determine which young people should be in the classroom and that police should wait for reports from school authorities before going after suspected truants.

The court’s eventual ruling could have wide effect. According to state education officials, there are about 1.5 million high school students throughout California. An additional 50,000 attend classes on a part-time but compulsory basis.