Parents Charged in Son’s Absences

Justin Cocco is a 14-year-old boy who hasn’t been in school for almost a year. His parents say that’s because he suffers from Tourette’s syndrome and several learning disabilities--he’s a “square peg,” as they put it--and he doesn’t get the kind of education he needs at a public school.

So he stays home. And his mother, Brenda Cocco, says she’s going to keep him there even though the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has charged her and her husband, John, with four counts of failing to send their son to school.

The case is a rare one, according to local officials, and could land the couple in jail for up to a year if they are convicted during a trial scheduled to begin May 27 in Newhall Municipal Court.

The Coccos, both of whom have pleaded not guilty, are scheduled to be in court Wednesday for a pretrial conference. Neither their defense lawyer, Milton J. Simon, nor the prosecutor, Terry White, would comment.

But Brenda Cocco said last week she was willing to risk jail rather than send the youngest of her three children to Sierra Vista Junior High School.

The Coccos seem an unlikely pair to run afoul of the law.

John Cocco, 59, is a successful doctor who has practiced medicine in California for 27 years. An internist at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital, he owns a home in one of Valencia’s most exclusive communities.

He and his wife, Brenda, 56, have two children several years older than Justin, and both have had to endure some of the same disabilities.

But why, local officials ask, would the Coccos jeopardize their son’s education and risk criminal prosecution?

Because the local school district’s special-education experts placed him in a class that stigmatized him and didn’t adequately address his learning disabilities, Brenda Cocco said last week. John Cocco could not be reached for comment.

“Those classes are only interested in teaching enough minimal skills,” Brenda Cocco said. “They want them to get jobs wiping down tables or cleaning floors. No. I have higher expectations for my son. Justin is very bright.”

Officials from the William S. Hart Union High School District deny their program is inadequate.

“The problem is this: The kid hasn’t been at school,” said district Supt. Robert Lee. “Whatever our shortfalls are or aren’t, you don’t help the kid by yanking him out of school.”

State law requires that Justin and all other children between the ages of 6 and 18 attend school. Home schooling is legal, and parents who choose that method are required to file affidavits listing their homes as private schools with the state Department of Education. Few actually go to the trouble, and few ever suffer any consequence, state officials said.

But local school districts do have the power to disqualify students from home schools if they think it would be detrimental, Lee said, and that’s what the Hart district did in Justin’s case.

Besides Tourette’s syndrome, a neurological disorder that causes facial ticks and uncontrollable bursts of obscenities, Justin suffers from attention deficit disorder and mood swings, according to school district reports that were submitted to the court as evidence. His behavior was disrupting class, the reports show.

District officials including two psychologists began meeting with the Coccos in June 1995, to discuss the best type of special-education program for Justin, records show. The district’s experts were convinced that a Seriously Emotionally Disturbed Program was the best place for him.

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They also concluded that although Justin had participated in a home school program in the past, he was “lonely and isolated.”

After the June meeting, officials were encouraged by the Coccos’ attitude, court records show. They said the couple appeared “comfortable” and “willing to work with the district.”

But Justin continued to miss school, records show, and as his absences piled up, his parents’ cooperation diminished.

In an interview, Brenda Cocco said she kept Justin home because she does not consider him to be emotionally disturbed and objected to him being enrolled in a program with that label.

She also accused his junior high teachers of being impatient with him and often sending him to the vice principal’s office to sit out the day.

“They didn’t want to deal with his learning disabilities,” she said. “They only cared if his body was at school.”

Brenda Cocco said she was to blame for the dispute with the school district, not her husband. Indeed, according to court records and district officials, the couple seems divided over their son’s education. On one occasion in February 1996, John Cocco dropped off his son at school only to have Brenda Cocco take him away, the records show.

“It appears that Mrs. Cocco has trouble separating from Justin,” a district report said.

Justin not only missed more school, but his parents missed appointments with school officials and refused to attend counseling sessions or accept phone calls from district workers who called to check on why Justin was absent.

The district stepped up its warnings to the Coccos. School officials sent them letters, made them sign contracts promising to send Justin to school, and scheduled more meetings.

Finally, on Sept. 20, 1996, John Cocco not only came 22 minutes late to a meeting but he failed to bring important documentation from Justin’s psychiatrist.

The district’s School Attendance Review Board turned over the case to the district attorney’s office, and the couple were charged in February. Justin had missed the equivalent of an entire school year, prosecutors and school officials alleged, from March 1996 through February.

“We don’t view having to take parents to court as a victory,” Lee said. “On the contrary, we see it as a loss. When we resolve the problems, and the kid gets back in school, that’s when we win.”