Truancy sweeps begin

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — A 12-year-old Delaware Avenue boy’s attempt to skip school almost succeeded.

He was spotted in front of his house about 10:45 a.m. Thursday by police officers and Mahoning County juvenile probation officers doing a truancy sweep.

As the officers approached, the boy’s mother came out of the house, explaining why he was home and not in school. He tried to leave in dirty clothes, she said.

That didn’t quite explain why he was about to get in a car with an adult when first seen.

Officers told the boy to get dressed in school clothes. The boy complied and was escorted to Hayes Middle School on Ford Avenue.

The truancy squad then turned their attention to a 14-year-old girl on the porch. The teenager should have been at East High School.

“Please take her,” the mother told police. “She keeps running away.”

Detective Sgt. Kevin Mercer said the girl would be charged as unruly because she would not comply with her mother’s order to go to school. “We need to help you get her under control,” Mercer told the mother.

He said parents have a responsibility to make sure their children go to school, adding parents should call police if they can’t make it happen.

Because the girl was not on the street, she could not be charged with violating the city’s ordinance for compulsory school attendance, Mercer said. School-age children found wandering the streets weekdays between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. can be cited for violating the city’s daytime curfew.

Thursday’s truancy sweep ran from 9 a.m. to around 1 p.m. It began with a briefing by Mercer at the Youngstown Northside Weed and Seed office on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Weed and Seed is a program that aims to prevent violent crime, drug abuse and gang activity in target areas.

Officers limited their sweep to the North Side. The team consisted of George Anderson and Bridget Quinn, both city police officers, and four probation officers — Mike Trolio, Brian Carnie, Pat Campbell and Monica Kirkland.

The probation officers had a list of roughly 100 children wanted by juvenile court, most of whom have failed to show for court hearings. They also had a list of about 400 children on probation to juvenile court. The idea was to check the name of any youngster they found against the lists.

The team began with a walk through the Westlake Terrace Homes, a housing project on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. No truants were found, but a man and woman were picked up on warrants.

The sweep continued with a check of the Western Reserve Transit Authority bus station on Federal Street, a popular hangout for truants. Young people at the station were asked for identification and checked against the probation officers’ lists. None were truant or wanted by juvenile court.

Next came a check of North Side convenience stores. Again, no truants.

“Maybe this is the day everyone went to school,” Carnie said.

Ted Terlesky, the schools’ chief of security, said it’s essential that students receive an education and be in the classroom where they belong. He said his staff, police and juvenile probation officers are always on the lookout for truants.

Mike McNair, city schools spokesman, said truancy sweeps send a positive signal to the community and to young people who think they can ignore the daytime curfew. “They’re a good way to attack and solve the problem,” he said.

McNair didn’t have any recent truancy statistics.

Terri Bryant, Weed and Seed program coordinator, said truancy enforcement is effective in getting to the core of why children skip school.

To ensure school attendance and reduce criminal activity, a two-year $230,335 anti-gang initiative grant from the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services was awarded to the Youngstown Police Department in January. The grant ends in October 2009.