A Monrovia, Calif., school attendance curfew ordinance that made it
illegal for minors to be out in public between the hours of 8:30 a.m.
and 1:30 p.m. weekdays has been declared unconstitutional by a Los
Angeles Superior Court after a home-school advocacy organization sued
the city.
The Home School Legal Defense Association
originally filed the lawsuit in 1997 for two home-schooled children —
Jess and Ben Harrahill — when they were, over a period of nine months,
stopped 22 times by police. Children of four other families and a
22-year old woman who looked under age were also included in the lawsuit
after being stopped by police because they weren’t in school. Some of
the children were out of school because their private schools had
different schedules than the local public schools and were not in
session.
The fine for violating the curfew was $135. Although none of the
plaintiffs in the lawsuit were cited for a violation of the curfew,
Michael Farris, president of HSLDA, believes that it wasn’t appropriate
for any of the children, or the woman, to have to explain their actions
in a free country.
“In a totalitarian country, you have to explain your actions to the
police, but in a free country, the police have to explain their actions
to you,” Farris said.
“Whatever happened to probable cause?” asked Rosemary Harrahill,
mother of the two boys. “It doesn’t exist in a curfew. Police can and
will stop anyone who looks young. Welcome to our police state.”
In addition to Harrahill’s sons, she said that plainclothes Monrovia
police in an unmarked police car stopped two girls who were coming home
from a private school. They were wearing the private school uniforms but
the policemen demanded to see a form of identification anyway. Harrahill
said the two girls looked “scared to death.”
According to Farris, the 1994 ordinance was passed because Joseph
Santoro, Monrovia’s chief of police, didn’t like one of the laws in the
California state code, which excuses a minor from school attendance for
various reasons. However, Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl of the Los Angeles
Superior Court, said in her opinion before the court that state law
permits a minor to be out of school for an “illness, medical or dental
appointment, a funeral service for a member of the immediate family and
enumerated ‘justifiable reasons.'”
“Judge Carolyn Kuhl’s ruling makes it clear that Monrovia’s ordinance
directly contradicts the state truancy law,” said Farris. “Children who
are on the street in compliance with state attendance law, should not be
hassled by local police just because the city officials don’t like the
law. The rule of law means that all officials — including the police —
need to obey laws they don’t like.”
Besides being contrary to state law, juvenile curfews have been shown
to be absolutely futile in a statewide study done by the San
Francisco-based Justice Policy Institute. The study, performed by Daniel
MacCallair and Michael Males, revealed that there was no correlation
between juvenile curfews and juvenile crime reduction. Interestingly
enough, San Francisco rejected a plan to implement daytime curfews
according to Farris.
Among all the cities in the United States that have a form of daytime
curfew, Farris refers to the Monrovia law as the “granddaddy” of them
all. The Monrovia law became a type of blueprint for all the other
curfew laws now in existence, he said.
Thus, Farris and the HSLDA believe that winning this case could have
nationwide implications on daytime curfews. Cities that have also
implemented daytime curfews, such as Los Angeles, San Diego and Houston,
might now reconsider whether or not their laws are constitutionally
sound following Kuhl’s decision.
Although Kuhl, in her ruling, decided that the Monrovia curfew law
“may not be enforced” and that “its enforcement is permanently
enjoined,” Monrovia Mayor Bob Bartlett said in a statement that he would
consider amending the law or appealing Kuhl’s decision.
“We caution Monrovia not to simply amend the ordinance,” Farris said.
“The judge said that our arguments against truancy are ‘very
substantial.’ Re-enactment of the ordinance would provoke another
lawsuit, costing the taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars. The
Monrovia City Council should instead get tough on real juvenile crime —
using existing laws — and not waste any more time or money on daytime
curfews.”
