GLENDALE : Police Pick Up 36 Truants During Sweep

Police spent the morning combing parks, video arcades, convenience stores and fast-food joints, snaring 36 wayward teen-agers Wednesday during a citywide search for truant students.

The truants, some of them handcuffed, were taken to the main office of the Glendale Unified School District, where they were frisked and made to wait for a parent or guardian to come get them.

One mother, at first angry that she was called from work, said she was nonetheless glad to know police were enforcing the mandatory school attendance laws.

“It’s a tremendously wonderful idea when they get kids off the street,” said Ann Wyatt, whose 15-year-old daughter jumped a fence at Glendale High, allegedly to make a telephone call. “If they’re minors, they’re supposed to be in school.”

“Because of this, I’m missing class,” said her daughter, Christy.

Her mother replied: “Don’t blame it on anyone else but yourself.”

Glendale police began the truant sweeps 12 years ago, when an officer, Rick Young, heard reports that students were returning to classes with jewelry, cameras and other valuables they had apparently stolen.

Young, now a sergeant, said Glendale’s burglary rate now is half what it was in 1983, largely because of the cooperative city and school district truant searches. A team of nine officers spent three hours Wednesday questioning those who appeared to be under age 18.

State law prohibits youngsters between the ages of 6 and 18 from ditching school.

Police declined to say how often they conduct the truancy sweeps. But “after we do one of these, the truancy rate drops way down for about a week. . . . Word-of-mouth, basically,” Young said.

Some students, he added, “intercept mail and phone calls and parents never hear their kid has a truancy problem. This way, there’s no denying it.”

Police searches of the students’ pockets and school bags Wednesday turned up several packs of cigarettes, a marijuana pipe and a set of brass knuckles, Young said.

One woman, whose 18-year-old stepdaughter was picked up by police, arrived at the district’s headquarters with mixed feelings about the sweeps.

“To me it’s a good idea,” she said. “But I don’t know how it will work out in the end--whether it’ll keep kids in school or not.”