Proposed school zones
» Limited to between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. for no more than five days.
» Must be clearly marked.
» Violators are subject to a $300 fine and six months in jail.
Civil liberties advocates Thursday criticized D.C. Council proposals to establish safety zones around transit stops and schools as unconstitutional, ambiguous and ineffective. Students, however, fearing for their lives, pleaded for better protection. Five students of Friendship Collegiate Academy in Northeast, across from the Minnesota Avenue Metro Station, told the D.C. Council’s public safety committee that they are regularly targeted for violence and muggings by other kids who just wait for them to leave school.
“I do see them more than often at the same station and they see me, so I’m definitely terrified when I go over there,” said Khalil Lee, a Friendship student who was recently robbed on the Metro station escalator. The council is considering two measures geared toward youth violence prevention. Neither has found unanimous community support.
One would install 50-foot safety zones around D.C.’s roughly 4,000 rail and bus stops. Increased jail time and fines would await any person who commits a serious crime within one.
The second authorizes the Metropolitan Police Department to establish temporary 1,000-foot no-loitering zones around any school provided there is a credible threat against students, parents or staff. Officers could disperse groups of three or more within a zone if they have reason to believe a crime might be committed, and arrest those who refuse to leave.
“Both of these bills attempt to get at a problem of violence that involves minors, in particular minors who are attempting to attend school,” said at-large Councilman Phil Mendelson, public safety chairman.
But Stephen Block, legislative counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union of D.C., said the school zone plan “criminalizes loitering without any actual misconduct.” “It is the presence of the police officer that protects the schoolchildren,” Block said. Transit safety zones are especially arbitrary, said Laura Hankins, special counsel with the D.C. Public Defender Service. If they were enacted, a person who robs the Quiznos at 13th and U streets NW, less than 50 feet from the U Street Metro Station, faces a 1.5 times longer prison sentence than a person who robs Ben’s Chili Bowl, 84 feet away. Hankins asked, does the safety zone start with the Metro escalator or the station elevator — often found midblock? Should the zone include a building atop a Metro station? How about a house adjacent to a bus stop? Metro supports the bill. Deputy Metro Transit Police Chief Erhart Mark Olson suggested expanding the zones to 150 feet.
