Force parental responsibility

There are no comments for this page [ Add Comment ]

Since all of society has a keen interest in keeping children in school and learning how to someday function as productive adults, anti-truancy measures are naturally a hot topic in educational circles. The task we give schools is to produce knowledgeable graduates who create companies, operate businesses, produce goods and services, and stay clear of jail and prison -- where we store our social parasites, many of whom failed to complete their high school education.

In an ongoing effort to curtail truancy -- especially of the chronic sort -- school districts are rethinking whether to establish policies that reflect the Legislature's permission to punish parents in pursuit of getting their children back in school. Utah law allows for the prosecution of parents who fail to cooperate with school officials who identify truants and solicit parental help in correcting the situation. If parents don't respond to school administrators' notice of a truancy problem, they can be charged with a class B misdemeanor.

The Davis School District, for example, is currently mulling whether to make that an option in its policies dealing with truants. Most parents, according to the administrators our reporter, Loretta Park, spoke with about this subject do get involved and try to get their kids back to regular attendance.

Unfortunately, there are cases in which parents don't appear to care. And that's the point where society is obligated to step in to try to force the issue: If a neglectful parent won't respond for the good of their own child, maybe they will when it looks like the law may be bearing down on them.

In the past, administrators responded to truancy by fining students for their absences. For more than one absence, it was $5 a pop, escalating to $10 and then, after multiple absences, finally hitting the $25-per-unexcused-absence threshold, after which the totals could move quickly into the hundreds of dollars. Students sometimes would pay the fines, but many would choose to work off the fines via hours spent cleaning up or doing other chores at their school.

The funds were then used to pay for various educational items or programs.

Our guess is that few parents are as neglectful and foolish as to completely ignore notices that their children are truant from school. But since it does happen, however infrequently, officials should have the parental-misdemeanor charge included in their arsenal of weapons against chronic truants. As we said earlier, all of society has an interest in seeing children graduate high school and move on to lead responsible, productive lives; if it takes the heavy hand of government to force the issue, so be it.

Comments

Add a comment...

Name:
Comment:
Security Code:	Type the characters to the left in the box exactly as they appear.
Your IP:	38.103.63.60 This address is recorded for security purposes.