DAY CURFEW SET TO START; STUDENTS, PARENTS CONCERNED MEASURE WILL CURB FREEDOMS.

Byline: Sonia Giordani Daily News Staff Writer

When the athletes on the wrestling team go out for their sixth-period run on surface streets near Agoura High School, Brad Drooker-Wallace and his teammates sometimes take a break at any of the local fast-food restaurants.

``We'll stop and get a drink of water or a soft drink. It's not like we're loitering, but we sometimes take a break,'' said Drooker-Wallace, student body president at the high school.

But the 17-year-old Agoura Hills resident and his colleagues might have to wear their day passes around their necks and skip the break when the city's new daytime curfew law takes effect next month.

``Now if the sheriff's (deputies) see us and think we look like we're loitering, we could get ticketed or have to go to court,'' he said.

Narrowly approved by the City Council on Wednesday, the new curfew law restricts minors from hanging around in public between 8:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. and between 10 p.m. and sunrise.

For more than 10 years, the city has had a nighttime curfew. The council approved an ordinance in May to add a daytime curfew. Prior to a second reading, however, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a similar juvenile curfew ordinance in San Diego.

The council amended the ordinance to conform with the court's ruling and adopted it Wednesday night - but not without protests from some parents and youths concerned that the new law violates children's constitutional rights.

``It's like my child is guilty until proven innocent. The sheriff's (deputies) will have the right to stop and detain a kid if they aren't carrying their pass,'' said Yolanda Monroe, an Agoura Hills resident who home-schools her 7-year-old daughter, Chelsea, and said her school hours are different from public school hours.

The area's hundreds of home-school families and private schools may keep different school hours, Monroe said, adding that such students could face repeated harassment by law enforcement officials for being in public during the day.

``At 7, my daughter may not be at Thrifty's getting an ice cream cone by herself. But she may be at 15,'' said Monroe, who intends to home-school her child for much of her education.

For Tim McNutt, the school day ends about 11:30 a.m. when he heads to his work experience program off-campus.

``I could be walking to work and because I look young, the police could stop me,'' he said. ``I understand that the city wants a curfew law for kids who are loitering, but I am worried that the police will end up harassing everyone just for being out.''

Opponents said they are awaiting the outcome of a precedential court case in which the Home School Legal Defense Association questions the constitutionality of a daytime curfew established in the city of Monrovia.

The association issued a memorandum last month opposing the Agoura Hills ordinance establishing a daytime curfew.

According to the memorandum, the ordinance violates state truancy provisions that make the schools - not law enforcement officials - responsible for their students' whereabouts during school hours and restricts minors' right to travel and move about freely.

``This issue will not go away,'' said Martha Highfield, an eight-year Agoura Hills resident and parent.

``I am convinced that it's simply a matter of time before this law is repealed - either through another City Council vote, through a citizens' vote or through litigation,'' she said.

But city officials and law enforcement officers said the law will not affect kids who have permission - either written or verbal - to be away from school.

``This law is not meant to be heavy-handed or abusive. It's a tool for the Sheriff's Department to make sure kids are in schools where they are supposed to be and not out messing around,'' said Mayor Fran Pavley, one of the three council members who voted to adopt the curfew Wednesday night and agreed to reconsider the effects and merits of the curfew law again in six months' time.

Jim Christianson, principal of Agoura High School, said the schools have been working with law enforcement officers since the daytime curfew law was first introduced more than a year ago.

``We are not at all concerned that this law will be misused,'' he said. ``If students are off campus with legitimate reasons, there is no way that this law is going to impact them negatively.''

Following neighboring communities including Calabasas, Westlake Village and unincorporated Los Angeles County that adopted a daytime curfew earlier this year, Agoura Hills' decision provides the Sheriff's Department the consistency they need to enforce a curfew in a region where youths tend to cross city boundaries, according to sheriff's officials.

In fact, the officials have been waiting for a vote in Agoura Hills to begin actively enforcing the daytime curfew in neighboring cities.

``With Agoura Hills coming on, we now have the curfew enacted in all the areas in our jurisdiction,'' said Detective Michael Berg of the Sheriff's Department.

Berg said that although truancy is not a serious problem in the area, there are about 50 kids who have shown habitual problems with staying in school.