Daytime Curfew Angrily Opposed Before 3 Councils

A controversial daytime curfew for school-age children was angrily rejected by one city council and tabled by two others this week in the face of angry opposition.

The Villa Park City Council unanimously rejected the idea Tuesday night, calling it an attack on the Constitution, and received a standing ovation from the audience.

On Monday night, the Seal Beach and Fullerton city councils postponed action on the proposal, which Villa Park Mayor Joseph S. Barsa called “Hitlerism at its worst.”

The countywide curfew is being pushed by county prosecutors, police chiefs and school superintendents as a way to strengthen truancy laws.

Under the proposed ordinance, students age 6 through 17 could be issued citations similar to traffic tickets by police if they cannot prove they are legally out of school between 8 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on a school day.

La Habra City Council adopted the ordinance earlier this month.

At Monday’s Fullerton council meeting, resident Bernice Lomheim called the ordinance an invasion of parental rights and “an extreme reaction to truancy and juvenile crime.”

“If this ordinance was accepted, our new county motto would be something like, ‘Welcome to Orange County. May I see your identification papers, please?’ How frightening!” she said.

Mayor Chris Norby said the ordinance “may have started out as something that someone thought was a good idea. When you cast a wide net to pick up a few bad guys, you oftentimes get a lot of good guys in that net and sometimes the bad guys still slip through.”

Separately, Seal Beach Mayor Gwen Forsythe called for a public hearing Sept. 9, saying revisions of the ordinance warranted further study.

Forsythe drew angry outbursts from residents during her defense of the ordinance.

“This is something that is going after the children who are consistently absent from school,” Forsythe said. “These are the kids who do not fit in our schools.”