Friday, May 28, 2010
Jailing parents for truancy
If Texas schools were better, perhaps I'd be more open to the idea of ticketing and jailing kids and their parents for truancy. As it stands, it's hard for me to blame youth for voting with their feet and leaving school early, and I doubt criminal enforcement can do much to change that. For some reason there's come to be a belief in this society that every social problem imaginable - from addiction to high-school dropout rates to mental illness - can be solved through criminal enforcement. I don't know how we reached such an odious historical moment, but it IMO bespeaks a lack of imagination more than anything else.
Social engineering through over-criminalization is a plague.
ReplyDeleteIt is the same theory that instructs Educators to "expel" trouble makers.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could give a better idea as to what needs to be done, but I can't. Charter Schools were supposed to offer alternatives in education to provide options to "troubled youth." The fact is that Charter schools either provide no alternatives, or no education.
The fact is noone has the solution! The problem starts at home; however, educators are expected to deal with the issue and provide a solution.
ReplyDeleteI agree that PARENTS need to be held accountable for the actions of their child, not educators.
When mommy knows she will be held accountable when her child skips school, attendance will improve!
But why is it, 9:52 that the only form of holding parents accountable you can imagine is to criminalize and punish through the justice system? Is fear of criminal punishment the only thing that keeps you accountable in your own life, or do you suppose there are other brands of accountability that might be more effective at changing intractable behaviors?
ReplyDeleteGrits, I am all ears!
ReplyDeleteI work daily with students and parents. We offer multiple programs for kids that are discipline and truant problems. These programs are also offered to parents as well as other family members. The problem, attendance to those programs. Many parents are just not interested in what we have to say.
We also partner with Communities in Schools. They also state that attendance is a huge problem.
It's difficult to understand if you are not dealing with it everyday.
Truancy is not a criminal or juvenile issue. It's a school problem. Some kids are not able to perform to the new acadamic level with the new math and other pretty tough curiculum. Some do have a learning problem. Offer more vocational programs that really interest the kid and see them perform beyond expectations. The legislature took vocational funding out and guess what happened. WE dont every kid to be prepared for Harvard. Let some be plumbers, mechanics and such
ReplyDeleteI had a child who skipped several grades in school. She loved learning. She started high school at age 12. Her freshman year was great. Everyone was kind to her, football guys would watch over her. Everyone wanted her to excel and they encouraged her.
ReplyDeleteThen I moved to west Texas. Very different. They would rather ridicule you and drag you down to their level. I had no help or support from the school. She skipped 30 days! Where was she? Across the street at MickeyD's. Why? Because they teased her so much all the time and bullied her that she was an outcast. What was she doing? She would sit there reading and doing work on her own. The principal was no help other than to tell me that she didn't belong in that school.
I pulled her, begged everyone for money and scholarships and put her in private school.
Truancy is nothing new, maybe there's more of it now because maybe there are more kids now. I don't know, I just know it’s an age old problem that has never been or will be solved.
ReplyDeleteThe numbers listed in the news report seem to indicate only a small fraction foails to conform in this Bell County precinct. "About 95 percent of the parents usually do what the judge asked them to do," Prado said.
So if the numbers are right, this appears to be an isolated event related to someone who refuses to conform to what is required.
“Prado himself has served more than 600 papers for truancy since January of 2009, and said that the Killeen precinct has seen about the same numbers. Of those, about 20 of them have landed in jail.”
Wow, 600 papers and only 20 jailed. It seems the vast majority of those served papers decided to comply. Sounds like the program is working in this Bell County precinct.
Like everything else involving the school system, there's no easy answer.
ReplyDeleteMost of the repeat truancy cases I've seen are from families where the parents don't put any value on education, and as such, neither do the children.
I don't believe that locking people up will fix the problem. But at the same time, I don't know what will.
In the UK, parents are often ordered to attend parent skills classes when their children's truanting gets out of hand. The kids get social workers or mentors. It's not just about getting them back into school, it's also about finding the reasons for the truancy and seeing if there is anything that can be changed so that the kids go back to school.
ReplyDeleteSome kids truant because they are looking after their parents though, and there would be absolutley no point in sending those parents to prison.
"Wow, 600 papers and only 20 jailed. It seems the vast majority of those served papers decided to comply. Sounds like the program is working in this Bell County precinct."
ReplyDeleteAs many know Killeen is populated by a major of military. This creates a different sort of situation in that a member of the military who is facing charges must also contend with a reaction for the NCOs and commanders of his or her company/division. Though similar to an individual's employment with a civilian employer, the serviceman or woman must face possible additional charges and penalties. So I believe looking at Killeen as a success story is not without contributing factors outside the court and the school district.
i think you would find the following book interesting: simon, jonathan. governing through crime.
ReplyDeleteListen, you can't make people better by locking them up. You just can't. All you do is make them harder to catch the next time. Kids play hooky. That's just the truth. School isn't fun. So kids run off every now and then. Big f'ing whoop. All this jail time for everydamnthingunderthesun is a total waste of time and money, and only creates resentment. Everyone just needs to chill. Maybe if school were a wee bit more fun and less nightmarishly boring, fewer kids would bail. But I doubt it, school is intrinsically unpleasant.
ReplyDeleteThe most effective situation I had with court with with "responsible juveniles", students over 18 who had enrolled in school but chose to skip. When thye were fined the rest of the school stopped looking up to them and started being more responsible.
ReplyDeleteMany parents will not accept the responsibility for their students. A great source for children who wind up in TYC. Only when schools can offer a product that is relevant to the community, and when parents will support that will there be any decline in truancy.
These little monsters aren't all cut out to be brain surgeons, neither are Rick Perry and G Dumbya Bush. This begs the question, why is our Texas education program so one-sided?
School starts to get really boring in 3rd grade. The canned ham and teaching to the test bores both kids and teachers. There's no time for games, clubs, and hobbies at school. After school we've got no place for kids to go for stuff that interests them. In the old days they were called "settlement houses" where kids were encouraged to develop "play or free time" skills. Today, we have rec. centers with limited activities and added fees. In the 50s, kids could do athletics, crafts, dance, jam sessions, chess, stamp collecting, etc. And there was no "homework" in the early grades that was just stupid drill and practice of the same kind that the kids do "in their seats" all day now.
ReplyDeleteYou know, it's money! The poor families can't afford to "enrich" their kids to develop hobbies rather than watching TV, and the community surely is not providing.
Our kids are soooo bored. I'd drop out too.
Ah yes; truancy. I am developing a workshop for counselors on effective solutions for families with truant youth (see www.tnoys.org). Wonder if any of your readers with experience with truancy can list what they did that WORKED to get their kids to go to school. We spend a lot of time talking about the PROBLEM, lots of time blaming others (kids, parents, schools, legal system, etc.) What I try to include in my trainings is: What works? Any ideas from personal experience?
ReplyDeleteJack, I think kids drop out of school because schools are a) crappy and b) irrelevant to their lives or the job market.
ReplyDeleteWe need more vocational options that provide opportunities for kids that won't go to college, then more of them would have a concrete, self-interested reason to stay. In many ways, for many youth, dropping out is a rational decision from the student's perspective, despite all the reasons we all know it's preferable if they stay in school.
Our JP puts the kids in the juvenile detention center for a few days. Does this work? who knows? Makes the adults feel better though.
ReplyDeleteMy grandson is in prison now because he was brain damaged and had problems in school so as soon as he was old enough the school turned him out on VOC. He had no job no transportation and no way to get it. When it came time for graduation, they gave him a diploma. Eleven months later when I could get him the right testing. He was found to have Organic Brain syndrome and the highest grade function was 6th grade. When he was accused of a crime he pleaded guilty because he was "afraid of the DA." The DA said he is a danger to socioty and sent him to prison for 20 years. Now when he has a sonic clonic siezure they let him lay there with his head bouncing off the floor because they aren't "allowed" to touch him. A grown mans prison is no place for a 12 yr old mind I don't care how big they are. If he'd been kept in school he wouldn't have thought he was grown.
ReplyDeleteI'm a single parent working two jobs. Also taking care of not one but four kids alone. My 14 year old skips class. If I send excuses to school with him he won't take them to the office. I'm at work being a provider for my family. Should I have to take off work and hold his hand and walk him to all his classes? He needs to be held accountable for something. Now I have to take off another day to go to court and may go to jail also pay fines that I cannot afford . All the other kids all great in school all "A's ".
ReplyDelete