Truancy Ordinance Aims at Pocketbook

To the uninitiated, the scene might have passed without notice.

On a tree-lined street a few blocks from Thousand Oaks High School, a teenager pedaled his bicycle alongside his little sister on a recent morning, providing a protective escort on the way to school amid the bustle of city traffic.

But Senior Deputy Dave Lareva, an 11-year veteran of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, took a long look at the youngsters and didn’t like what he saw. Both were more than an hour late for school. And in this suburban enclave, that can put the school-age set on the wrong side of the law.

So the lawman stopped his patrol car, started asking questions and eventually tagged the teenager with a $135 ticket under the city’s new anti-truancy ordinance.

“What we’re trying to do is let these kids know that they’ve got to be in school or have a good excuse why they’re not in school,” said Lareva, who deposited the teen at Thousand Oaks High and also arranged for a police cruiser to deliver the younger child to a nearby elementary school.

“I remember we used to pick up kids and their attitude was it was no big deal,” he added. “But now the word is getting back to the kids that they can get a fine just like they would for a traffic violation. It’s sad to think we have to hit them in the pocketbook to make them stay in school, but it seems to be working so far.”

Indeed it does. Since Thousand Oaks enacted the anti-truancy ordinance in March--the first Ventura County city to adopt such a law--sheriff’s deputies have issued 22 citations to students from the city’s three high schools for being absent without leave.

But school officials say the new law has had a ripple effect, resulting in fewer students cutting class or skipping school so far this year.

At Westlake High, average daily attendance has experienced a modest increase, from 99.1% last year to 99.5% so far this year. And at Thousand Oaks High, the number of youngsters absent all or part of the day has been cut in half, from an average of 150 students last year to about 75 this year.

“I think it has had a positive effect on our campus,” said Steve Myerchin, Thousand Oaks High School’s welfare and attendance officer. “And I think as the citations increase, it’s going to get more and more truants off the street and into class where they belong.”

Added Bob Watson, Myerchin’s counterpart at Westlake High: “We don’t have a lot of problems here, but I’m still glad to see that our truancy rate has gone down.”

It wasn’t like any of the Thousand Oaks schools were battling a major truancy problem to begin with.

In fact, even as educators and law enforcement officials were crafting the new law--which broadened the city’s existing curfew ordinance--they acknowledged that the truancy rate citywide was less than 0.2%.

But sheriff’s officials said they needed a tough anti-truancy law to help combat growing problems of juvenile crime. Sheriff’s officials say they believe the ordinance has helped reduce the amount of daytime crime in the city--such as burglaries, vandalism and vehicle break-ins--caused by wayward youngsters.

Moreover, officials say the ordinance was aimed at driving home a message to students and parents that going to school and staying in school should be a top priority.

Patterned after ordinances in Southern California cities such as Norwalk and Monrovia, the Thousand Oaks law makes it illegal for students younger than 18 to be out of school without a valid excuse between 8:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.

Truants are cited to traffic court and face a $135 fine. Those who don’t pay can lose their driving privileges. And parents can be fined up to $2,500 for allowing their children to repeatedly violate the city ordinance.

The Thousand Oaks law has served as a model for other Ventura County cities such as Fillmore and Simi Valley, which have adopted similar get-tough policies.

“We are trying to be proactive in this city,” said Sgt. Harold Humphries, who works out of the Sheriff’s Department East Valley Station in Thousand Oaks. “We decided this was a good way to motivate kids to stay in school and stay off the streets.”

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Not everyone agrees. Some students said they feel the fine is excessive, and that the law unfairly punishes parents for their children’s mistakes.

“Why should my mom be forced to pay a fine just because I screw up?” said one teen from Newbury Park High School. “She’s got no control over what I do in school.”

But for educators, law enforcement officials and many parents, that’s exactly the point. The law forces parents to be responsible for their children, whether they want to or not.

“I think it’s great,” said Liz Peron, president of the Parent-Teacher-Student Assn. at Thousand Oaks High School. “As a parent, I want to know that my kids are in school, and if they’re not, I want to be called.”

Not only is the new law keeping students in class, school officials say, but it is helping to protect those youngsters who might be tempted to ditch school and play hooky.

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“Even though it’s a very small percentage of kids who are out truant, that small percentage is not being supervised,” said David Holmboe, welfare and attendance officer at Newbury Park High School.

“And oftentimes those kids are out there doing other activities that could be dangerous for themselves or could create a danger for other people,” he added. “I think it’s real important for those students to know that if they’re out there, they could get picked up.”

That’s where Dave Lareva comes in. In his black-and-white squad car, the Thousand Oaks High School graduate hit all the teenage hangouts on a recent morning.

He squeezed past the mall and through the alleys behind strip shopping centers. He sliced through parks and through the residential areas that border the city’s three high schools. He cruised past fast-food joints and doughnut shops and anywhere else youngsters were likely to gather.

In three hours, he issued only one citation. But he was satisfied with the outing.

“I guess we scared them all back to school,” he said. “I think we’re starting to get their attention.”