Fortunately for college students, the worst consequence of being late to class is the loss of a few participation points or an annoyed glare from a professor. Under a daytime curfew ordinance, however, Los Angeles high school students can face a citation and fine of up to $250 for tardiness.
At Van Nuys City Hall on Monday, the City Council’s Public Safety Committee passed a proposal that would reduce the penalty for this punitive measure.
Under Monday’s revision, which alters the old policy, students with one or two tardies would only be asked to participate in community service instead of facing exorbitant fines.
But this decision is not about letting kids off easy; it’s about correcting an ineffective rule that failed to lower crime rates or solve truancy problems.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, police officers have used handcuffs, performed unwarranted body searches, and held students in the back of police cars even though they were not under arrest, actions left to the circumstantial discretion of police officers under current policy.
This police conduct has led some students who have been cited for tardiness ““ most of whom are otherwise law-abiding high schoolers ““ to distrust the police and to simply stay at home on days when they cannot make it to school on time, according to the ACLU of Southern California.
Additionally, police officers are much more likely to give these citations to minority students; in fact, from 2004 to 2009, not a single white student out of more than 100,000 white students in the Los Angeles Unified School District areawas ticketed for breaking daytime curfew, despite the more than 13,000 tickets issued to students of other races in that time period, according to public records provided by the LAPD.
Fining students for tardies also puts unnecessary financial stress on their families, most of whom are from lower-income families.
Additional court fees may bump up the $250 price tag, and parents may have to miss work to take their child to court.
Lawmakers should make these recent changes to the policy permanent, and should focus on developing methods that work to reduce truancy, like establishing after-school programs for consistently tardy students and counseling students that may be at risk for criminal activity or dropping out of school.
Truancy is something that should be dealt with by the schools, not by potentially heavy-handed police officers.
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