Things have sure changed since I was in high school. We didn’t know it then, but apparently we had it made. We had an open campus and a primitive system for tracking attendance. It was easy to cut, and believe me - I took full advantage of it. Kids these days aren’t so lucky.
The Truancy Reduction Attendance Coalition of Kern (TRACK) is working with law enforcement agencies to catch the kids designated as chronically truant. (Of course, the reason they’re truant probably has something to do with another type chronic.) The cops made a sweep across southwest
I know this may sound strange coming from me, but I think it’s about time they started putting more pressure on the parents. A lot of kids these days have parents who are ambivalent at best about their children’s education. Some of you may remember the “ghetto neighbors” I complained about in the past. (Thank God they’re gone.) One of things that bothered me most about that family was that the children where never in school. They had two elementary school age kids and I saw them running around here when they should have been in school ALL THE TIME!
I have friends who teach high school and they’ve told me about frustrating it is when the parents are the problem. They want their kids to stay home to baby sit, or the teen is the one in charge, so they call and make up excuses to clear their child’s absence. And the excuses they make up! I’ve heard tales of claiming a student should be excused because the washer broke and ALL of their clothes where in there, so they had nothing to wear. Yeah, right.
As far as I’m concerned, not sending a kid to school is neglectful, and therefore should be characterized as child abuse.
Stumble It!
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