Baltimore sends parents to jail for truant kids

[Leajess99]

I say they have a hell of a lot of nerve. Talk about Big Brother watching. Mind your own business. It's their business and the kids if they aren't going to school. Jailing a parent for that is ludicrous.

Actually this is just insane. It IS the business of the school as long as the kid is registered as a student. A child not showing up costs the schools funding. Big brother would not have to watch IF sorry butted parents bothered to take care of making sure their kids were attending school. Yes, not every parent with a truant kid is lazy but many more are.

IF it takes jailing a parent to get these people to put a stop to their child's out of control behavior (truancy is an out of control behavior) than that is what needs to be done.

 

[Planogirl]

A kid that skips 15 or 20 days probably isn't keeping up with the lessons either. Should schools just be a free for all where students show up whenever they wish? I don't begrudge the school having rules.

 

[sewer]

I can't believe some of these answers. If you choose to have children it's your responsability to take care of them which includes an education, period! Should this country create a generation of unemployable adults?

 

[katesorad]

I'm sorry, but once your kid hits 14 or 15 (maybe even younger), there's not much you can do to force them to go to school. Sure, in come cases parents may be the ones to blame. But in a lot of cases, I really think that the CHILDREN need to be sent to jail instead if they're the ones manipulating their parents or skipping school behind their parents' backs.

 

[scrapquitler]

Then Mom should have walked her right into the office every morning and signed her in and then let the school deal with her if she left at that point.

Why in the world would you just drop a child like this off?

I think it is good ,why have laws in place if no one is ever going to be held to them. They need to put more in jail, and the truant child should also have to go to facility also.

And then the child could have walked out the patio and left in between classes. Lets face it, a teenager who doesn't want to be there can find a way to leave if they want to. The parent can't always be blamed for it.

Does it make sense to send parents to our expensive and overcrowded jails(then it will be impossible for them to make sure the child is at school), when there are REAL criminals who should be there?

 

[declansdad]

This is the most ridiculous thing I've read about to date. You can not blame the parent at all if their kid just plain isnt showing up for class or school, particularly when it comes to teenaged kids.

Sure you can; it is the responsibility of the parents to ensure their child is receiving an education. Is a child has missed numerous days without reason, parents need to show they have been trying to remedy the situation. If they simply ignore it, they are falling in their duty.

 

[golfgal]

I'm sorry, but once your kid hits 14 or 15 (maybe even younger), there's not much you can do to force them to go to school. Sure, in come cases parents may be the ones to blame. But in a lot of cases, I really think that the CHILDREN need to be sent to jail instead if they're the ones manipulating their parents or skipping school behind their parents' backs.

No, by this age if you haven't done your job yet you are right, there isn't much a parent can do to make a child want to be in school. The point is to do your job BEFORE they get to this age.

 

[declansdad]

And then the child could have walked out the patio and left in between classes. Lets face it, a teenager who doesn't want to be there can find a way to leave if they want to. The parent can't always be blamed for it.

Does it make sense to send parents to our expensive and overcrowded jails(then it will be impossible for them to make sure the child is at school), when there are REAL criminals who should be there?

In a case like this the parent would be showing that they are trying to deal with the situation. It is still the responsibility of the parent to ensure the child is getting an education.

Since you feel a child would simply walk away from school and the parents shouldn't be held responsible, what would you suggest?

 

[Hoodie]

taught him the importance of education

Um....I'm guessing she didn't. She may have said the words, but she obviously didn't teach him anything.

 

[tasha99]

Wow, that is completely ridiculous. If anyone should be "jailed," it should be the truant teenager!

I'm sorry, but people who say parents can and should always be able to control their teens who skip school have easy going, compliant children--and that's a personality blessing, not a result of good or bad parenting.

 

[katesorad]

No, by this age if you haven't done your job yet you are right, there isn't much a parent can do to make a child want to be in school. The point is to do your job BEFORE they get to this age.

No.. my parents did a good job parenting me. They taught me right from wrong. They had their flaws, sure, and there were a lot of things that I disagree with, but they never, in any way, said it was okay to skip school. Did I skip school? A lot. I was a bad kid, not because of my parents. Don't blame it on the parents. Sometimes it's not their fault.

 

[Tiger926]

It doesn't work, but it's a last ditch effort. You can't blame all parents, just like you can't blame all schools. This is about punishing parents, and not actually putting workeable solutions in place to help with serious truancy.

In our province, it's mandatory for kids to be in school between ages of 6-18. Problem is, that there aren't many supports for truant kids, or, for us at the school level. We don't even have an active truant officer in my city, as there is no funding. So, what good is a law, without the ability to maintain and police that law?

Putting parents in jail will absolutely not help the seriously truant kids, as their lives are a mess, and those lives may or may not include parents, whose lives are also a mess. As well, there are some learning disorders that directly affect motivation, so getting them to school is a problem that stems from other reasons (check out Dr. Mel Levine "Myth of Laziness).

Jail is not the answer, but it's an easy bandaid fix, for an otherwise serious problem. Putting parents in jail does not guarantee that kids will attend school - what then?

Curbing teen dropouts and serious truancy is a big problem that takes a ton of money, multiple community partners and many creative solutions, besides jail. Baltimore probably sees this as a way to scare the heck out of the parents and the kids, but honestly, it's been proven not to work, so I don't see that it's going to help, plus, it's going to cost to maintain a parental jail program. Use the money for supports for both the students and their families, as seriously truant kids are usually in need of a lot of help.

Tiger

 

[declansdad]

I think it is important to remember that not all parents would be going to jail; it is for parents that allow their child to miss large amounts of time.

 

[castmember19]

No.. my parents did a good job parenting me. They taught me right from wrong. They had their flaws, sure, and there were a lot of things that I disagree with, but they never, in any way, said it was okay to skip school. Did I skip school? A lot. I was a bad kid, not because of my parents. Don't blame it on the parents. Sometimes it's not their fault.

Agreed. I went through a phase where I "skipped" school (I stayed in my extra-curricular classroom during other classes and lied to my teacher, telling her my other teachers knew where I was) quite a lot and my mother was furious when she found out. It wasn't until the school called her that she had any idea.

I would be very angry if anyone ever accused my parents of not teaching me the importance of education or of bad parenting- it was not their fault. I knew what I was doing and I did it anyway. I only snapped out of it when the school put me on a contract in which my teachers had to sign me into class every day. Granted, the school never asked to see the contract again but still.

I've known several kids throughout high school who had great parents and yet got into trouble numerous times, even if it was just once. Even the most perfect parents in the world would have kids who got in trouble from time to time, especially as teenagers. Teenagers do stupid things, and they know better at that age and should be held responsible.

I am willing to bet that the children of most of the posters here will have skipped a day of school at least once (but probably more) in their lives as teens. Imagine that, and then imagine that someone blamed you because you did not teach your children the importance of education.

Anyway, I'm rambling. Point is- teenagers know what they are doing and they are perfectly capable of doing it behind the parents backs. Penalize them, not the parents.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

Haven't read all the posts, but I agree with these laws. Poor and lack of parenting is one of the biggest issues facing "our" children in school. You can have the best teachers in the world, but if the values of education are not supported at the home, it doesn't matter.

 

[Holly]

Haven't read all the posts, but I agree with these laws. Poor and lack of parenting is one of the biggest issues facing "our" children in school. You can have the best teachers in the world, but if the values of education are not supported at the home, it doesn't matter.

I agree.


If there's a legitimate reason for absence schools are usually reasonable about excusing them. My daughter missed almost every Friday of her first grade school year, which she spent at the hospital hooked up to a slow drip IV full of medication that saved her life. The school didn't give me a hard time at all.

I think that a parent is negligent if their child is missing a bunch of school for no good reason.

 

[joviroxx]

So you send the parent or parents to jail. What happens if they get fired as a result? If the family lives in public housing, the jail time could be grounds for eviction. Now you have an unemployeed parent with a homeless family. Great policy.

Having kids is a responsibility. If you can't handle the responsibilities and everything it entails as well as the possible difficulties, hassles, hurdles, and challenges, then you shouldn't be having children. Its time to start holding adults accountable for the choices they make to having kids. You need a license to drive and to fish, you break those laws and you might go to jail.

I have yet to see a teacher who won't work with a parents schedule to have a parent/teacher meeting. Skipping and ignoring these meetings is just plain irresponsible.

As far as these truant kids, they aren't talking about parents whose kids skip every now and then, this is for kids who are habitually and chronically truant.

 

[MamaJessie]

Ok, so I understand cracking' the whip when a student misses the majority of the school year. The end of the story though is what made me

Criminalizing parental laziness has had something of a nationwide movement lately. California's new strict anti-truancy bill took effect at the beginning of this year. Parents can serve up to a year in jail if convicted of allowing their children to skip class. Florida and Texas already have similar laws on the books. And one Michigan prosecutor wants an ordinance passed to send parents who miss parent-teacher conferences to jail for three days a pop.[/COLOR]

Up to a year for letting a kid skip class? I'd homeschool if that was my district.

And three days of jail time for missing a conference? Three days of JAIL for missing a 15 minute conversation where the teacher shows me school work and reviews a report card? Insanity.

Wow, that is completely ridiculous. If anyone should be "jailed," it should be the truant teenager!

I'm sorry, but people who say parents can and should always be able to control their teens who skip school have easy going, compliant children--and that's a personality blessing, not a result of good or bad parenting.

There is something to be said for that. I have two SILs that are night and day.

 

[tazdev3225]

I try to stay away from these discussions but I have to post. Sometimes there are no easy solutions to truancy. My DS had severe anxiety issues. He had psoriasis that was so thick on his scalp he wore a baseball cap to hide it. It started the day before school started and cleared up within a week of summer vacation. This started in 1st grade. By high school I was $20,000 in debt to pay for private schools and counseling. He then began to have severe panic attacks. I drove him to school everyday and the school security stood on the front steps laughing as I tried to pry him out of my car and get him in the building. I could get him in the building and his teachers watched him stand in the courtyard vomiting as he cut their classes. Eventually he had to be taught at home by the district because the anxiety became to severe. I saw the school psychologist every month and when he became a father right before his jr year they cut the schooling. The reasoning, he would drop out anyway.

His sister was assaulted in middle school. In 8th grade she was there less than half the year. She spent time in the hospital 3 different times because of severe depression. The district passed her on to 9th grade anyway. She was then being threatened every other day. I took her to school, took her to the office and left her with the staff to get her to class. She was out the back door, with the staff waving good-bye before I was even in my car.

I spent 3 years going to truancy court, had child services visiting my house every other week and was threatened with jail. The judge told my DH and I that he would force us to value education. The problem was that I did. I was going to school myself and had a 3.85 GPA and was working and dealing with 2 kids with bi-polar disorder. It is not always a cut and dry issue. I realize my circumstances are not the norm. Education is important but jailing parents or students is not always the answer.

 

[Tiger926]

I try to stay away from these discussions but I have to post. Sometimes there are no easy solutions to truancy. My DS had severe anxiety issues. He had psoriasis that was so thick on his scalp he wore a baseball cap to hide it. It started the day before school started and cleared up within a week of summer vacation. This started in 1st grade. By high school I was $20,000 in debt to pay for private schools and counseling. He then began to have severe panic attacks. I drove him to school everyday and the school security stood on the front steps laughing as I tried to pry him out of my car and get him in the building. I could get him in the building and his teachers watched him stand in the courtyard vomiting as he cut their classes. Eventually he had to be taught at home by the district because the anxiety became to severe. I saw the school psychologist every month and when he became a father right before his jr year they cut the schooling. The reasoning, he would drop out anyway.

His sister was assaulted in middle school. In 8th grade she was there less than half the year. She spent time in the hospital 3 different times because of severe depression. The district passed her on to 9th grade anyway. She was then being threatened every other day. I took her to school, took her to the office and left her with the staff to get her to class. She was out the back door, with the staff waving good-bye before I was even in my car.

I spent 3 years going to truancy court, had child services visiting my house every other week and was threatened with jail. The judge told my DH and I that he would force us to value education. The problem was that I did. I was going to school myself and had a 3.85 GPA and was working and dealing with 2 kids with bi-polar disorder. It is not always a cut and dry issue. I realize my circumstances are not the norm. Education is important but jailing parents or students is not always the answer.

So sorry you have gone through this. How are your kids now?

So many people like to blame parents, schools, etc., and forget that there can be mitigating circumstances related to physical and emotional health, and these can cause serious truancy, as you related.

Our schools struggle to help kids due to lack of funding, so making kids go to school is one thing, but how are you going to keep them there, if they experience what you have described?

I wish you luck with your children, as it sounds like it's been a long and hard road...

Thanks for being an involved parent, Tiger