Daytime Youth Curfew on Agenda

A proposed daytime curfew aimed at discouraging truancy and loitering of 6- to 18-year-olds is among the matters that will be discussed tonight by the City Council.

The curfew, which would be from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on school days, is being endorsed by a coalition of Orange County school district superintendents and law enforcement officials.

Last week, La Habra became the first of the county’s 31 cities to adopt a daytime curfew. The new law will take effect in September.

Daryll Thomann, Placentia’s acting police chief, said in a report to the council that “a majority of the daytime residential burglaries are committed by students absent from school.”

Students who ditch classes are also prone to engage in “unsafe activities,” Thomann said, “by loitering in residential neighborhoods, business districts and malls.”

The curfew being considered by Placentia would provide for exceptions, such as when students leave campus with a valid lunch pass, when they are on emergency errands and when they are involved in school-arranged activities.

Violations of the curfew could result in a fine of up to $250 per incident.

An organization opposed to the curfew is Lake Forest-based Citizens for Responsible and Constitutional Law. The group contends that such a daytime curfew would infringe on the rights of minors.

The council meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at City Hall, 401 E. Chapman Ave.