Provo proposal would criminalize daytime truancy

PROVO — Six-year-olds being handcuffed and hauled off in police cars.

Home-schooled children getting detained by law enforcement because they're outside playing in park on a weekday.

And BYU students having to produce a student I.D. in order to grab lunch off campus.

Realistic or not, these are some of the concerns expressed in recent weeks by parents and other Provo residents regarding a proposal to criminalize daytime truancy for school-age minors.

The Provo City Council is considering an ordinance that would authorize police to issue citations to children ages 6 to 17 found to be truant. The offense would be punishable as a class B misdemeanor.

Provo Mayor John Curtis said the proposal emerged from discussions of the Provo Gang Task Force Steering Committee as a crime-prevention tool. Provo police say there's a link between truancy and daytime crimes, particularly those involving gangs.

"Our goal is to be proactive on gangs," Curtis said. "We don't have a serious gang problem, and we like that. We want to be way ahead of this thing."

Provo School District spokesman Greg Hudnall said the number of truancy cases being referred from the district to juvenile court has nearly doubled over the past five years.

In 2004-05, the district referred 110 students to juvenile court — the final step in the state's method for dealing with habitual truancy. In 2009-10, the district referred 211.

"We just see those numbers rising," Hudnall said. "This is our approach to try and help deal with something that's very serious."

But some Provo residents, particularly those with school-age children, say they believe the proposed action goes too far. They worry that children who are doing nothing wrong will be made to feel like criminals simply for being in public on a school day.

"It's truly frightening," said Gove Allen, a Provo resident and parent. "The biggest problem I have with this ordinance is it will give Provo city police officers the authority to detain, interrogate and potentially arrest anyone who appears to be under the age of 18 and is in a public place within the city of Provo."

Concerned Provo residents like Allen and his wife, Veronica, have been flooding Mayor Curtis and members of the City Council with e-mails, calling on them to find another way to deal with truancy problems.