Court Orders Reconsideration of Truancy Law

A state appeals panel has overturned a Superior Court ruling that Monrovia cannot enforce an ordinance that allows police to ticket all children caught on public streets during school hours.

In a development that heartened the supporters of local daytime curfews, the 2nd District Court of Appeal ordered the Superior Court to reconsider the legality of the curfew. But even while Monrovia officials hailed the news as a victory, the ruling is far from an outright endorsement of the law, opponents said Saturday.

Monrovia city and police officials said they viewed the court’s action Friday as a vote of confidence. In fact, city officials have been so sure of the law’s constitutionality that they said they never actually stopped enforcing it when Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl ordered them to do so almost one year ago.

“Nothing’s really changed,” said Sgt. Rich Lukofnak, a Police Department spokesman. “But this does tell me that the courts are backing us, that they’re in favor of keeping kids in school. After all, who are the criminals out there? They’re high school dropouts.”

Opponents of the law, however, scoffed at the city’s view of the ruling. “I don’t know what the city’s crowing about,” said Andrew Zepeda, a lawyer for opponents of the law. “Nobody’s won anything yet.”

Resident Rosemary Harrahill, an opponent of the law, criticized police for continuing to enforce it. “This is absolute nonsense; they’ve been told to cut it out. They’re just not listening.”

Monrovia claims it was first in the nation to adopt a local daytime curfew, and was singled out for praise by President Clinton. Scores of California cities have followed suit and are watching to see how the courts handle this case.

City officials adopted the curfew in 1994, saying state laws lacked the teeth to deal with truants.

Under Monrovia’s curfew law, it is illegal for children up to age 18 to be in any public space other than school between 8:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on school days. Violators can be stopped, ticketed and forced to appear in court with their parents. Under the state’s truancy law, children must be found absent from school as many as five or six times before they are subject to a fine.

The legality of the ordinance has been called into question by a group of private school and home-schooled children and their parents, who sued the city and the police chief in 1997. The group claims that the law is unconstitutional and that home-schooled children are needlessly stopped and questioned by police.

Harrahill, the mother of two home-schooled boys, said her children have been stopped 22 times, though they have never been cited. The truancy law exempts them.

Still, parents say such treatment is wrong. “The fundamental presumption of innocence is gone,” Harrahill said. “The child has to prove right away that they’re innocent. That’s just backward.”

The violations are noncriminal, but punishment includes either a $135 fine or 27 hours of community service. Since the city adopted the ordinance, police have written 1,161 citations. Officials say the law has reduced daytime crime by 40% and increased school attendance by nearly as much. Critics claim the crime figures are misleading because they include adults.

In Superior Court last February, Judge Kuhl ruled that the Monrovia law was unenforceable because it contradicted the state’s truancy law. She said the Monrovia law allowed certain children to be ticketed even though they would have been legitimately excused from school under the state law.

Monrovia City Atty. Mitchell Abbott said the ordinance was immediately changed so that it would not punish those excused children, but said that Kuhl “ignored” the change.

The appeals court decision now requires Kuhl to consider the amended ordinance.