Overturned Curfew Spurs Cities’ Review

In the wake of a judge’s striking down Monrovia’s landmark daytime curfew for teenagers, some cities with similar ordinances said their regulations conform with state law and will hold up in court.

Officials in a number of other cities, however, aren’t so sure and said they are assessing how the ruling might affect their statutes.

About 70 to 80 cities across the state followed Monrovia’s lead with laws that allow the police to fine truant teenagers.

On Thursday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl ruled that Monrovia’s ordinance contradicted state law and could no longer be enforced. She found that there were numerous situations in which a student could be considered truant by the city but legitimately absent from school by the state.

Officials in some agencies and cities, including Los Angeles, said their laws are worded differently than Monrovia’s and do not conflict with state law. Others said they would investigate the issue, but would continue enforcing their daytime curfews in the meantime.

“Until we receive a copy of the ruling itself, we’ll keep working it,’ said Sgt. Jim Glancy of the Azusa Police Department.

In Long Beach, officials planned to review the ruling today to see if it would affect their ordinance, a police sergeant said. In Buena Park--one of three cities in Orange County to pass daytime curfews--the city attorney said he also would study the decision and suggest any necessary amendments to the municipal code.

At the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, prosecutors said the similar county ordinance should already be “in harmony with state law.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Tom Higgins, head of the juvenile division, said the county worked hard to avoid the “problem of the state already occupying this area” of law.

Monrovia police said they would return to dealing with truancy the way they did before the law was passed in 1994--they’ll round up truants and send them back to school, without issuing citations.

Officer Bill Couch, who devised the law, said all of the teenagers cited were truant under both the local and state law. Each was assessed a fine of up to $135, he said, but 99% avoided payment by doing community service.

Couch said the ruling would not pave the way for the teenagers to have their citations dismissed.

The law had gained worldwide attention, prompting inquiries from police departments as far away as London and Paris and drawing President Clinton on a laudatory visit to the quiet foothill town.

The Police Department has since prepared 107-page packets that include the ordinance and crime studies to distribute to other police forces as a start-up kit.

Los Angeles Police Det. Ben Gonzalez, who trains officers in enforcing his department’s truancy law, said Monrovia gave other cities the idea of ticketing truant teenagers. But he said Los Angeles’ ordinance differs in that it allows students to be on the streets during school hours as long they have permission from administrators or their parents.

Gonzalez said that rule jibes with the state education code, which permits adolescents to be absent from school for “justifiable personal reasons.” He said he doubted that the City Council would have to redraft the ordinance in the wake of Thursday’s ruling.

Kuhl’s injunction against Monrovia resulted from a lawsuit filed in 1997 by private school and home-schooled children and their parents, who complained that the police were harassing teenagers. They argued that the ordinance violated their right to be on the street and should be struck down on constitutional grounds.

But Kuhl did not address the broader implications of harassment and civil rights, leaving open the possibility that Monrovia will merely rewrite its ordinance to comply with state law.

Michael Farris, the plaintiffs’ attorney and president of the Virginia-based Home School Legal Defense Assn., said he would litigate again if the city returns to enforcing the law. He also said he is going to write letters to 70 California cities, including San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles, to inform them that the recent decision may have an impact on their ordinances.

Times staff writer Jeff Gottlieb contributed to this story.