DAYTONA BEACH — Fewer arrests of students and more civil citations. That's the main focus of a public meeting Monday evening at the Peabody Auditorium.
Fighting Against Injustice Towards Harmony — or F.A.I.T.H. — is sponsoring the meeting, which begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Peabody at 600 Auditorium Blvd. in Daytona Beach. The goal of the "action assembly" is to get officials who are in a position to make a difference to support FAITH's efforts. The organization expects up to 1,800 people to attend.
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood, Daytona Beach Police Chief Craig Capri and 7th Circuit State Attorney R.J. Larizza are expected to attend. Other police chiefs may also attend. Additionally, Volusia County School Board Chairwoman Linda Cuthbert plans to attend. Other School Board members will not attend due to Sunshine Law restrictions, said Nancy Waite, spokeswoman for Volusia County Schools.
F.A.I.T.H. is hoping to increase the use of civil citations in schools, said Chris Hoffmann, who is co-chair of the group and pastor at Our Lady of Hope Roman Catholic Church in Port Orange.
In the 2016-17 school year, 340 felony or misdemeanor arrests were made of Volusia County schools students, Florida Department of Juvenile Justice records show. Deltona Middle School showed 37 arrests, the fifth highest figure in the state. The records also indicate that while 15.75 percent of Volusia County students were black in 2016-17, 45 percent of those arrested were black.
The coalition is working with Larizza’s office on a memorandum of understanding so that fewer students are arrested and more receive civil citations, which won’t saddle them with criminal records for the rest of their lives, Hoffmann said.
“Too often a kid gets a bloody nose or something like that, ‘Oh, well, there’s violence now with blood and therefore we have to arrest the kid. Maybe not,” Hoffmann said in a recent meeting with The News-Journal editorial board.
Students accused of offenses involving weapons or sex crimes would not be eligible for a civil citation. But for others, civil citations will keep their record clean for when they apply to college or complete a job application.
The State Attorney’s Office has also agreed to handle the issue of restitution. For example, restitution might be in order if a student's glasses are broken in a fight at school, Hoffmann said.
“Now, the state attorney’s office is going to handle that restitution, so therefore it would not require an arrest to be made in those cases,” Hoffmann said. “That will be big. That will help a lot of kids who otherwise now would be arrested.”
The memorandum of understanding would make civil citations mandatory for first offenses, and the victim would be allowed input into the decision later, Hoffmann said.
“That’s primarily a cooling off period more than anything else,” Hoffmann said. When two kids are fighting and the parents get involved, angry, ‘Yeah, I want that kid arrested.’ Well, let’s talk about this let’s work through this.”
Suspensions are another issue, said Pedro Dash, also a co-chair of F.A.I.T.H. He said one suspension makes a child 10 times more likely to drop out of school. Too often, he said. people mistakenly believe that civil citations and other elements of restorative practices are a “free pass.”
“People are realizing that it’s not a free pass at all and it’s actually very much more effective in your understanding that something I do to one person affects the whole class, affects the whole community," Dash said. "And it makes a big difference as far as re-offending.”
Bryan Shorstein, the spokesman for Larizza, said in an email that the office is working on a memorandum of understanding. He confirmed that having the State Attorney's office handle restitution issues would result in fewer arrests.
Daytona Beach Police Chief Capri said he supports the civil citation approach as long as it was not a sex crime or a violent crime, such as something involving a firearm or a robbery.
“I think it’s the right thing to do,” Capri said. “We all make mistakes when we are kids. If we can intervene on behalf of these kids and go the education route, I’m all for it. I'm not a big fan of putting kids in the system."