Parents: Letter lacks class

Michael Miller

Angry parents vented their frustration at a meeting the Orange County

district attorney’s office held Wednesday to discuss possible truancy

by hundreds of Newport-Mesa students.

The meeting, which was attended by hundreds of parents and

students of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, came after a

letter the district attorney’s office sent earlier this month to the

families of students with three or more unexcused absences. Many

parents at the meeting voiced disapproval at the tone of the letter

and at the fact that schools had sent no prior notice regarding their

children’s attendance.

According to Assistant Dist. Atty. Lew Rosenblum, schools are

required to send out letters to parents about truancy problems before

the district attorney’s office issues notices. However, Rosenblum

said that due to a miscommunication, a number of schools in

Newport-Mesa did not distribute such letters to parents.

“Some people came here not aware of the number of absences,”

Rosenblum admitted.

He added that the notices from the district attorney’s office were

accurate. “I don’t think any of these parents got a letter who didn’t

have a child with three unexcused absences or more,” Rosenblum said.

How many schools failed to send out the intermediary notices is

unclear. Michael Murphy, director of alternative programs and student

services for Newport-Mesa, said he believed only two schools had not

informed parents of their children’s truancy. However, parents from

Estancia High School, Newport Harbor High School and TeWinkle Middle

School reported not having received word before the letter arrived

from the district attorney’s office.

Part of the letter read, “If your child’s attendance does not

improve, both you and your child may be subject to prosecution, which

may include a fine, weekend school, frequent court appearances, your

child’s loss or delay of the privilege of a driver’s license for one

year, or even time in custody.”

Several parents bristled at the letter’s language, particularly

the reference to custody, which they viewed as excessively harsh.

“I was pretty angry about it,” said Alice Simpson, the mother of a

fifth-grader at Newport Heights Elementary School. “I was scared

because I figured I was going to go to jail for her not being at

school on a regular basis.”

Rosenblum said the letter was the same one that the district

attorney’s office had sent out to 17 other school districts in Orange

County this year. Eighteen districts in Orange County participate in

the Truancy Response Project, an intervention program for students

with attendance problems. Rosenblum said the letter went out to

districts regardless of individual truancy problems, noting that

Newport-Mesa’s attendance level was “about the same” as most.

At the meeting at the Costa Mesa Community Center, which started

at 3:30 p.m., Deputy Dist. Atty. Susan Riezman offered a PowerPoint

presentation about truancy statistics. She reminded attendees that

they live in a relatively affluent area and that truancy can lead to

poverty and prison time.

“We all know that Orange County is a very nice place to live, but

it costs a lot to live here, and it’s not going to get any cheaper,”

Riezman told the crowd. “If you want your kids to be able to make it

on their own, they’re going to need the education to compete for the

decent jobs.”

Among the statistics she noted were that 78% of prison inmates had

truancy as the first entry on their arrest records, that 57% of

violent crimes by juveniles occurred on school days and that 67% of

truants tested positive for drugs at the time they were detained.

Both parents and students, Riezman said, can face jail time if

truancy persists.

California’s Education Code defines truancy as absence from school

without a valid excuse for three full days, or tardiness for 30

minutes or longer on three occasions, during the course of one school

year. Some students at the meeting conceded their absences but said

they were easily explained.

Mike Tierno, a freshman at Newport Harbor High School, said he was

often late to class because he couldn’t make it across campus in time

before the bell.

“I think when students go to school, it’s the school’s

responsibility to keep them in class,” said his mother, Brooke

Tierno. “I drop my son off at school every morning on time, 10

minutes early.”

* MICHAEL MILLER covers education and may be reached at (714)

966-4617 or by e-mail at [email protected].