Police Won’t Issue Bill for Student Search

Monterey Park officials have decided to tear up a $3,000 bill that they sent to Montebello Unified School District officials after city police were called to help search for a missing student, school officials said.

Some Montebello school board members were upset that they received the bill to pay for police overtime during the Sept. 19 search. “What are the police for?” board President Darrell H. Heacock said.

Monterey Park officials could not be reached and city police declined to comment.

District Supt. Darline Robles reported in a memo that city officials said they sent the bill because they felt the district should have responded more quickly when it learned that the child, a special-education student, was missing.

Police were called after the mother of the 10-year-old girl notified Macy Intermediate School in Monterey Park that the student had failed to board a bus after school. The girl was found unharmed about 12 hours later.

District officials alerted Monterey Park police within half an hour after receiving the mother’s call, said Glenn Shepard, the school district’s business manager. “Our feeling is that we responded in force in a timely fashion,” he said.