On the corner of Vermont Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard
Monday,
student protesters from Cleveland, Westchester, Central and
Manual Arts high schools
protested a proposal to fine students $250 for tardiness or truancy.
(Photo by John Guenther)

When Natasha Harrell's teenage son came home with a $250 truancy ticket, she followed her first instinct and did what any mother would do under the circumstances: gave him an earful.

"I was so mad," the South Los Angeles woman recalled. "But after he explained it to me, I was mad at the school. How could they let him get a ticket?"

Her son Mauryce was ticketed for being late to class. Tormented by bullies, he refused to take the school bus and insisted on taking city buses. Getting to school on time became even more difficult when his mother became bedridden for six months, and the teen got the added responsibility of making sure his little brother made it to school safely.

Her son's experience compelled Harrell to join dozens of protesters from four Los Angeles high schools Monday in taking a stand against a proposal that would allow police officers to ticket truant or tardy students on school property, not just on city streets.

The protest targeted L.A. Unified School District Board Member Tamar Galatzan, who supports the Councilman Tom LeBonge-sponsored proposal. The school district, Galatzan and LeBonge didn't responded to requests for comment.

Galatzan's chief of staff, Tom Waldman, said his boss introduced a resolution in support of LaBonge's proposal. The resolution is on the school board's agenda for the Oct. 13 meeting.

Galatzan, who works as a prosecutor in the L.A. City Attorney's office, "sees the connection between truancy and criminal behavior," Waldman said.

The first time Mauryce Harrell got a truancy ticket, he had taken the city bus to Dorsey High School and arrived 15 minutes late for first period. Just as he rounded the corner on his way to class, two cops stopped him and slapped him with the ticket ostensibly for playing hooky.

"I always thought truancy was for ditching class," Natasha Harrell said in wonderment. And the tickets kept coming.

Eventually, Mauryce racked up so many truancy tickets, that Natasha, a single mother on a fixed income, simply lost count, and the thousands of dollars in fines remain unpaid to this day.

Mauryce left Dorsey in August to complete his junior year at Watts Charter School, which he can reach by taking a single bus line, eliminating the hassles and delays of multiple transfers.

The Community Rights Campaign, which organized Monday's protest, says the proposal does not address the underlying reasons for truancy and unfairly targets students of color.

"Tardiness and not going to school are not a crime," said Damon Azali-Rojas, an organizer with the group. "It is a signal that somebody needs help. They need resources."

City law requires students to be in school between 8:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. unless a parent is supervising them. Police officers ticketed students both on and off campus until a juvenile court ruled recently that the code didn't explicitly permit ticketing on campuses.

LaBonge's proposal would amend the city code to allow for the ticketing of students who are not in class during those times but technically still on campus.

The Community Rights Campaign says the law prevents kids from getting social services they often desperately need. Circumstances ranging from family responsibilities, to transportation issues, to financial difficulties can make a student late for class or skip school entirely, Azali-Rojas said.

His organization is calling for a moratorium on any tickets for "daytime curfew violations" and then an outright repeal. He added that the ordinance unfairly targets minorities because 91 percent of students within the L.A. Unified School District are non-white.

"If you're only giving tickets to basically mostly people of color, then that could be a civil rights violation because it's not equal protection under the law," he said.

On the corner of Vermont Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard Monday, student protesters from Cleveland, Westchester, Central and Manual Arts high schools banged drums and shouted in unison, "One, we are the people! Two, a little bit louder! Three, we want justice for the students!"

Wearing army-green T-shirts with "Hey LAUSD, I'm pre-med, pre-job, not pre-prison" on the front and "Not down with the lockdown" on the back, the ebullient crowd of about 30 solicited support from passing motorists, who occasionally honked to express solidarity with the protesters.

As students let out from school walked by, activists from the group handed out flyers and asked others to sign a petition.

Although Verenice Mejia, a senior from Westchester, has never gotten a truancy ticket, several of her friends have, and she said it's unfair.

"[We] just want to go to school, not miss out to go to court and pay truancy tickets," she said, before joining protesters.

Erick Fuentes got a ticket after arriving to school late because he had to walk his 2-year-old niece four miles to her babysitter's home.

His brother, the toddler's father, paid the fine, but Fuentes said the experience left a bad taste in his mouth and that the fight against truancy should not fall to law enforcement officers.

"I think there's another way to go about it," he said. "If the problem is school-related, it should be dealt with by the school."