Ventura Weighs Daytime Curfew

Skipping school is at least as old as Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, speakers reminded the Ventura City Council last week. But the council remains poised to implement a daytime curfew today that it hopes will put an end to school-time surfing excursions.

Even though truancy rates have been decreasing, youngsters still skip school, supporters of the curfew say. And some of those students become crime victims when they should be in class.

“If we know that people are being victimized, it’s incumbent on us to do something about that,” Councilman Jim Friedman said.

If the “Safe Students Ordinance” is adopted, it would become illegal for minors who are required to be in school to be out in public from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. If a police officer were to see someone appearing to be of school age, the child would be stopped, questioned and returned to school.

School officials then would decide, depending on the student’s total number of absences, how to proceed. Only the habitually truant would be likely candidates for referral to an attendance board, a panel made up of representatives from the school, social services agencies and law enforcement, a district official said.

Early versions of the ordinance, which was proposed by the Ventura Police Department, would have made it a misdemeanor to violate the curfew. However, that language has been softened, and a violation would not be considered a criminal offense, although offenders could be referred to Juvenile Court.

“It would be similar to getting cited for skateboarding somewhere you’re not supposed to,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Wendy Macfarlane said.

Assistant Police Chief Pat Miller told the City Council that officers would have discretion on whether to cite the student.

“We would enforce the spirit of the law more than the letter of the law,” Miller said. “We take a softer approach with youth.”

There are exceptions to the curfew. A student going to a doctor, work or school activity would be exempt, as would legally emancipated minors.

But assurances by the Police Department have not quelled parents’ fears that their children may be harassed by police, even if they are in public for legitimate reasons or are home-schooled.

More than 35 parents and residents addressed the City Council at its last meeting. One speaker said the ordinance would “traumatize children for dollars.”

“No adult in this meeting has not skipped school,” said David Bianco of Ventura. “Children should not have to live with this sword of Damocles hanging over their heads.”

The first daytime curfew ordinance in the state was enacted by Monrovia in 1994. The Monrovia Police Department’s Web site touts the city’s decrease in truancy and juvenile crime since the curfew was implemented. However, the constitutionality of that ordinance still is being challenged in court.

“A local municipality can’t circumvent state law,” said Michael Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense Fund, the entity that has challenged the Monrovia ordinance.

“We’re going to wait to see if we win this case, and you can bet if we win there, we will use that ruling” to challenge other daytime curfews, Smith said.

If his group loses in appellate court, Smith expects it to appeal the Monrovia case to the state Supreme Court.

School attendance rates already have been improving in the district over the last few years, thanks to stepped-up truancy enforcement.

The efforts netted the district an additional $750,000 in state funding last school year, said Nancy Bradford, director of administration support services for the Ventura Unified School District.

But while the truancy rate is low, only about 1% to 2%, Bradford estimates, the curfew would lower it even more.

“Even if we just bring one or two more kids back to school, it’s worth it,” Bradford said.