School Board President Martha Toth was invited to the Nov. 2 meeting of the Van Buren Township Public Safety Committee to discuss truancy problems at Belleville High School.
The committee has been working on a truancy ordinance at the request of Public Safety Director Carl McClanahan. He had said he wants his officers to be able to stop students who are out and around during school hours in areas where home invasions are taking place.
He thought an ordinance would allow the officers to stop and question young people during school hours without having probable cause they had done anything wrong.
Last year, McClanahan had presented a version of Canton Township’s truancy ordinance to the township board, who asked him to redo it. Trustee Jeff Jahr, an attorney, especially objected to civil rights issues that could be raised.
So, he brought it to the Public Safety Committee and members worked on it, but ultimately, after much additional discussion on Nov. 2, it was postponed until such as time as it was needed.
School Board President Toth said that Director McClanahan asked her to come and talk about truancy. She said, actually, this is a problem addressed by high school administrators.
She said walkaways and wanderers were problems at the high school, which is more of an issue for the Belleville City police than for VBT, since the high school is in the city.
Toth said the Belleville Police Chief hauls them back to school. She added that the school officials would rather have police call the parents.
(Later, Belleville Police Chief Gene Taylor said that when he picks up students who have walked away from school without a pass, he gives them the choice of having him call their parents, who must leave their workplace to come pick up their children at the police station, or, they could go back to school and stay there. He said he has yet to have a student ask him to call parents.)
Toth said some students leave at lunch time and come back later, missing some class hours.
She said the BHS students have irregular class hours, since they are moving to extended schools days, ranging from “zero hour” when school starts to seventh hour after school is out.
She said there are students who go to Westland classes in the middle of the day, some by car, and those who go to the aeronautical classes at MIAT in the Canton and Taylor campuses.
Toth said any time-related ordinance would be a problem, since students are released at different times during the day.
Committee member Ray Bailey asked if kids skipping school go to anyplace in particular.
Toth said mainly it’s to Five Points and the party store there, and the chief picks them up.
She said some are in school, but not in class, which is the school’s problem. She said there will be a much better security system in the new high school building, with more cameras, fewer doors, and a more-compact area.
Toth said those not successful in school lose motivation to get started and others come to school just to socialize and get into things they shouldn’t be getting into.
Committee vice chairman Ramone Crowe, who was chairing the meeting in the absence of chairman Michael Miazga, said students who constantly are not coming into class should be on a list, highlighted, so the police can then take action.
“I don’t think we can do that under the federal right to privacy act,” Toth replied. “We don’t keep such a list, but if we did I don’t think we could give it to police. We need an attorney’s opinion on that, which I haven’t sought.”
“The high school is within the City of Belleville, which is not our jurisdiction,” pointed out committee member Richard Wardwell.
Toth said those that leave at lunchtime have cars and head for the fast-food joints on Belleville Road.
“I remember when I missed a class,” said Trustee Hart. “By the time I got home, my parents knew and it was over for me.”
Toth said the school has an automatic phone system to alert parents, but the messages are erased by the time the parents get home from work.
“Who enforces truancy?” Crowe asked.
McClanahan said it usually is done by the school administration. He said the City of Detroit makes it unlawful for children of school age to be in a public place during school hours.
“Back in the day there were truant officers,” Toth noted.
“She has been around forever,” began resident Larry Fix, referring to Toth and then apologizing and saying he meant no disrespect.
“I don’t sense the urgency in the school for this,” Fix said of a truancy law. “In Van Buren Township, police don’t have to call the school if a student is caught doing something.”
Fix said there are limited resources in the township and the committee’s time would be better spent on other work than creating or adjusting an ordinance.
“Where would you rank truancy?” he asked Toth. “Top five? Top 10?”
Toth didn’t answer and Fix went on, “When the time comes that Van Buren Public Schools want help from VBT, they can come to us…”
Crowe said the ordinance came up relating truancy to break-ins at certain times of the day, so police could stop individuals who are supposed to be in school and they’re not.
Toth said students have been expelled.
“If they can’t be in school, you can’t hold them accountable for not being in school,” she said.
“We’re trying to make kids want to go to school … We do appreciate your concern and anything you can do to help our kids,” Toth said.
She added things would be better if parents were held more accountable.
When Crowe asked where the committee wanted to go with the ordinance, Hart replied that Fix hit it on the head. “There has to be accountability in the home … no matter what age they are, if they break the law the police can detain them… I don’t know what VBT can do right now to help them.”
“If they [school officials] can’t give us private information, why have a truancy ordinance?” Madigan asked.
Supervisor Paul White said it is crucial for the township to maintain a recreation program for youth.
Toth said the school board is forming a committee to collaborate with surrounding communities on the use of the new BHS facilities that will open next fall.
“We want to make sure the community makes good use of our facilities,” Toth said.
Resident Cortez Brown said they have to get back to the community being responsible for its kids before the kids start getting in gangs.
“There are small crimes and petty crimes now and we want to get behind that before it escalates,” he said, adding that police have to be careful with stopping people on the street.
He said, legally, truancy is part of the Sheriff’s Department.
He suggested people step outside their houses, look around from their porches, to watch what’s going on because police can’t be everywhere.
The motion was made by Bailey and seconded by Miller to postpone a truancy ordinance until it is needed.
“The director brought it up because he thought it was needed,” Madigan said.
McClanahan said the idea of an ordinance emanated from him doing crime analysis on Home Invasion IIs and the times of day.
“I got some stats from the school district related to truancy in the high school … certain times of day … I correlated truancy with Home Invasion II.
“At no point did I intend to enforce truancy … I just wanted to give police officers the power to stop and investigate school-age children,” McClanahan said.
Hart asked McClanahan if he suspected a minor or juvenile of committing a crime and the person was walking down the street, could he stop the young person, based on his analysis?
“No. If there is an ordinance in place, we can,” McClanahan said. “You can ask them anything you want, but they don’t have to answer.
“Maybe in hindsight, a year later, truancy was the wrong word,” he said. He repeated that in the City of Detroit it’s unlawful for children to be in public during school hours.
Miller said there are different conditions now. Hart agreed, referring to home schooling and staggered times.
Hart asked McClanahan what he wants the committee to do to help him.
McClanahan said it’s not that someone would be arrested, but just questioned.
“I gave the committee my research a year ago,” he said.
“Ask the Chief of Belleville how he does it,” Hart suggested.
“I want to be ahead of this, not behind,” Brown said. “We don’t want any more law suits. We have to operate within the Constitution.
“We have to do it before graffiti gets bad. I enjoying shopping downtown … I feel safe.
“I forget to put my garage door down and come back three hours later and my stuff’s still there. I have a relative 17 miles away and he has to have chains and locks on his garage door and the stuff still disappears,” Brown said.
When Madigan asked McClanahan what kind of questions police want to be able to ask, McClanahan replied that if police were suspicious of someone being in violation of an ordinance that they wanted the right to stop and frisk.