Repeal will increase student attendance

The Los Angeles community’s voice has been heard. After a four-year community-led campaign, Los Angeles is removing a punitive anti-truancy policy that targets inner-city students.

The policy essentially meant any child caught violating daytime curfew laws could be fined up to $250 by the Los Angeles Police Department.

With the repeal of this law, attendance will surely be affected positively in schools. It is a victory for families and students in Los Angeles, as well as USC’s own community programs such as the Good Neighbor Campaign that reach out to surrounding middle and high schools. The Good Neighbor Campaign is a partnership between USC and local schools that raises money to support USC neighborhood outreach.

Government believes the truancy law that was previously in place would positively affect student attendance because fining students should scare them into going to school.

For various reasons, however, it seems as if the measures taken to enforce the anti-truancy policy are what scares children.

Many inner city students use public transportation, or have to accompany their siblings on the bus to different school districts.

Because of one simple variable, such as a late bus, a child might think, “I’d rather just stay home than get caught violating daytime curfew laws.” And it makes sense; $250 is a profound burden on low-income families.

Moreover, because of the old anti-truancy policy, LAPD was usually directed to handcuff and search students caught outside of school during school hours. This measure is far too aggressive for a child.

If a child knows she or he is at risk of being handcuffed while en route to school, she or he could very well be scared into staying at home to forfeit the prospect of being searched and fined.

Another victory in the repeal for the Los Angeles community is that minority students will no longer be disproportionally affected.

Eighty-eight percent of the 47,000 tickets issued between 2004 and 2009 were given to black and Latino/a students, even though they make up only 74 percent of the district’s enrollment according to Colorlines.com.

In my experience as a tutor for seven- to 14-year-old children in South Central Los Angeles, students would constantly tell me stories of the tickets they’d received while heading to school.

Subtle factors like late bus arrival take a toll on students, and the anti-truancy law was unsympathetic to these factors.

As a USC student, I can see how unfair the law is because I constantly see police cars around schools in the area. It says something that certain areas in Los Angeles are monitored more than others, especially when those focused areas have prominent black and Latino/a populations.

 

Mellissa Linton is a sophomore majoring in English. Her counterpoint runs Fridays.