Truancy Among Students
Truancy has become a growing problem. As the
students are truant teachers, vice
principals and parents become worried.
They do not think that students have
enough responsibility to stay out of
trouble. The truth is that only a few of
the students that are truant do not
have the responsibility to stay out of
trouble. Truancy is the act of
deliberately missing one or more classes.
Currently about 50% of the
Granite district truants are truant again. Ten
percent of students in Utah
that is arrested for sloughing are truant again.
Moreover, very few
students who do slough participate in illegal activities.
Sloughing is
too much of a concern with parents and faculty. The truant students
without
the responsibility to make there own decisions will go smoke,
vandalize
personal property or shoplift. It is those few, without the
responsibility to
make their own decisions, that should be punished. The
students that slough and
go smoke or steal things should be arrested and
tried as an adult. The students
that commit the crimes think that they are
responsible enough to make their own
decisions like an adult that they should
be responsible enough for the
consequences that an adult would receive. Some
friends of mine would slough and
they would go to lunch, go to one of their
houses and enjoy a good game or
sleep. They would not go out and destroy
other people’s items or steal things.
They did nothing wrong, one of them
sloughed almost every day of the first
quarter and passed all but two of his
classes. He almost was kicked out of high
school because he was having fun at
his house or he was getting something to
eat. Only one student who detested
the thought of going to school and he would
not go to school for 3 years.
That student was the only one that was talked to
that actually broke any law
while being truant from school. That individual,
while sloughing, was
arrested for shoplifting. The certain individual is the
only one that ever
did anything illegal while sloughing school. That one truant
out of seven
ever broke the law while sloughing If the student sloughs school
and does not
pass his classes then the student should be talked to. The student
should not
be kicked out of school because that would just make things worse. It
would
make the student not want to go to school because he would be in a
strange
new school. The biggest reason that the truant students would be
truant was that
they did not like school. The second biggest reason why
students would not go to
school was that they just did not care about school.
School was just a chore to
them and they did not see the point in it. If they
made school, a little more
interesting and entertaining then maybe there
would be a little less truancy.
The administration does not see the
solution to truancy that way. They think
that force is the only way when it
is actually the wrong way. If you force a
student to do something, they will
not succeed in school. Another reason that
was common was that the truant
students were addicted to the joys of being
truant. There were many other
reasons why students would be truant that included
the famous ‘senioritis’,
the idea that the seniors are tired of school and
found something better to
do in the time of the school. The other is that they
were too tired to go to
school They would go places in their car, vans, or some
friends’ cars, vans.
Moreover, if they did not have a ride or a car then they
would walk to
wherever they wanted to go. It did not matter the transportation
as long as
they did not have to go to class and they could do something else
other than
sit in the hard chair at school. When the truant students would
slough the
most common activity was eat breakfast and/or lunch and sleep. If the
school
faculty was to make lunch a little longer and start school a little
later
then maybe there would be a little less truancy. A few of the
activities that
truant students would take part in were getting paid, taking
care of things that
needed to have been taken care of that day but not enough
time to do so after
school. A couple more were watch movies with friends, and
play video games. Some
of the reasons why truant students would stop being
truant or some students
would not even slough in the first place are the fact
that they wanted to
graduate. Truant students also liked not having to wait
for ‘the call’ after
school. Some students would never slough in the first
place because they know
that they could not stop once they started. It is
extremely difficult to stop
sloughing once you start. Some other reasons why
students did not like to slough
is that they did not like the teachers or
principals talking to them when they
came back. They would ask, "Where have
you been," or "What did you do last
period, did you have fun?" The students
did not like lying to the faculty and
when they got home, they would think
that parent did not know any thing about
their teenager sloughing but they
usually did. Moreover, when they would be
lectured from their parents they
would not be happy and it would not be worth
the fun that they had during the
day. Some students that would not slough would
not because they did not want
to make up the work that they had missed while
they were gone. A few of the
students that would slough, when they went back to
school, had higher
self-esteem and you meet new people and might find out that
even like some of
your classes. There is a school for truant students that will
not go to
school. It is called Independence. The school has extremely
strict
discipline. The principals’ name is Greg Hudnall. Greg Hudnall and Kay
Lindsay
created the program of the school. When a truant student is arrested,
the school
that the student attends is notified as well as the students
parents. While the
student is waiting to for their parents to take them back
to school, the student
will attend a class at Independence. The second time
that a student is, arrested
records are reviewed and classes are changed if
the current classes were too
hard for the student. The third arrest results
in an automatic enrollment at the
Independence school. Each class has a
teacher and an adult aide to help watch
the class. This ensures that there
will be less mischief going on because their
will twice as more eyes watching
the class. Any one student will never be alone.
If a student wants to go
to the bathroom then the whole class will go to the
bathroom with the
student. The class is designed for expelled students and
chronic truants. Ed
thinks that this school is great for the students that would
want to go
there. If they want to stop sloughing but they cannot do it by
themselves
then this would be a place to check out. They should not be forced to
go to
this school if they do not want to go to it. If a student does not want to
go
to school then they probably will not, there is no way you can force any
one
person to do anything that they do not want to do. A student was sent
to
Independence in September of 1999. The student would not go to school
so the
mother called in a 235 ex-football player to come and yank her son out
of bed
and drag him to school. The student did not have time to change or get
ready.
The police officer pulled him out and dragged him to school with
no warnings or
other options. This is wrong. You should not physically abuse
the child and
embarrass the child by not letting the child change so they can
go to school. If
the child does not change then it will distract other
students from their
learning experience. In Sweetwater, Texas 3 mothers were
ordered to go to school
with their daughters for a week. If the mothers did
not go to school with their
daughters then they would be fined for $150 to
$250 for allowing the child to
become truant. Terry Pitman was the assistant
principal of the school and said
that all of the mothers went to school with
their daughters for the full week.
If the students were to slough again
then the student could be held in"contempt of court" and sent to Juvenile Hall
for being truant while on
probation. Sending the parents to school with the
teenagers is a good idea. The
bad part is what if the mother is the only
source of income. What would happen
to the financial state of the family when
they lost a whole week worth of
income? The mothers should only have to go to
school with their teenagers if
they are not the only source of income. Four
students had to go to Juvenile Hall
because they were sloughing while on
probation. Another student that had been
arrested for sloughing was not given
the chance for probation. That student had
been sent directly to Juvenile
Hall. Sending teenagers directly to Juvenile Hall
is not a good idea as to
the fact that it takes up space in the cells of jails.
The country needs
those cells to put other prisoners. The teenager should have
at least a
chance at probation before the teenager is sent directly to
prison.
Moreover, it is no concern of the state to be sending a truant
student into
jail. Especially when it takes the student away from the school
that, they need
to be attending. It defeats the purpose of keeping kids in
school. There is
another punishment for a truant student in Potter County is
wearing Pink
T-shirts. Marvin Mitchell, one of Potter County’s justices
of the peace, sees
the shirts as a last-resort. The front of the pink T-shirt
says, "Don’t Be
Like Me". The back of the back have "Because of his
truancy, Ed am at risk
of dropping out of school, being involved in a gang,
using or selling drugs,
becoming a criminal and being incarcerated. Four
students agreed to the proposed
plan, three people disagreed, and two people
were undecided. The way that Marvin
Mitchell would like to handle the
truancy problem is to talk to the students and
if that does not work then he
would try to do something else. The thing is that
if the students would want
him to talk to them then they would talk to him. Of
the students that Ed had
talked, to the most common excuse was "the phone
dialer must be broken." Some
other common excuses that were given to the
parents are, "the teacher didn’t
see me," "I did come in tardy, I guess
he/she didn’t see me come in late."
The boldest, lease used one of them all
was, do not worry about, it is fine,
trust me. All of these excuses were used to
help the parents not be too
concerned with what the teenager was doing while the
truant student was not
in school. The last one, ‘it is alright, don’t worry
about it, it is fine,
trust me’, would be the one that the parents should like
the most but most of
the time that one just gets you into more trouble. If you
use the excuses
like, the phonedialer is broken, it will sometimes work, and the
excuse
working depends on if the other schools call your house the way
that
Hillcrest does Ed’s house. The West Jordan phonedialer even called
his house
on Thanksgiving. Ed’s parents do not care if the phonedialer calls
any more.
They will check power grade. When a parent is paranoid of the
student sloughing,
and then gets a call from the school, the student
automatically, will get yelled
at by the parents even before the parents ask
the student if they missed school
or not. The best reason that Ed could think
of that Ed would give a teacher for
the morning classes is that his alarm
clock did not go off and Ed did not wake
up until late morning. The excuse
that Ed would always give his later classes is
that there was a train
crossing and Ed could not get by the train. Most of the
time it seemed like
the excuses worked. Sometimes the teachers could have cared
less. The only
bad part is that no matter what excuse you gave them, if you did
not have an
excuse slip from the office then they would usually not let you make
up the
work that you had missed. Teachers did not really seem to care all that
much
if you sloughed their class, some teachers would feel like their class
was
not good enough and try to change it. The truth is, we just did not want
to go
to class at that time. My personal parents, when Ed sloughed and they
found out,
would always give me lectures. Sometimes Ed would listen and would
not slough
for a couple of days then Ed would slough again and we would start
arguing
again. Ed would just pay absolutely no attention to what his parents
are saying.
He would then say that they are trying to control him when
this is just a way of
trying to show them that Ed have the responsibility to
do what is right for his
person well being. Every time that we would try to
talk about his sloughing
problem they would always seem like they were
attacking what Ed valued the most,
himself, in saying that Ed was throwing
away his future. Ed would take the
defensive and say that his parents do not
know anything. That would just make
his parents even more upset and his
mother would break down into tears. Ed did
not care because Ed was extremely
upset at his parents for telling me what is
best for him when they did not
know any thing of what was going on inside. Then
at the end, when the
Vice-Principal called me in, they were about to give up.
That is what Ed
wanted, Ed did not want them to care about what Ed did in
school. An
individual stated that while he was sloughing he was more of a jerk,
had less
money and did not get along with his parents as well. When he
stopped
sloughing he was not as much of a jerk, felt better about himself,
and got along
with his parents better. When Ed sloughed, Ed did it to relieve
stress;
therefore, Ed was a much more calm person that could handle any
stress at any
time do to the fact that Ed did not worry about school. The bad
part of the
sloughing was the money that Ed spent on gas, food, and other
items that Ed
bought. If Ed had not been sloughing then Ed would probably not
have nearly as
many financial problems. Ed also became extremely irritable
with his parents. Ed
did however not have any road rage, stress from work or
home. While Ed was
sloughing, Ed felt, like a better person. Although
sloughing had an effect on
two people, there was one person that it did not
have an effect on. It did not
bother him that he was sloughing nor did
sloughing relieve any stress because he
did not have any. The one thing that
did show up with every one is the tendency
to be a little lazy when it comes
to things that we did not think that really
needed to be done. There is some
proof that sloughing might be good for the
mental state of a few people and
have total reverse effects on others. It is up
to the individual to decide
whether it is what the student requires in order to
be a better more
productive student in school. Ed never really got any
punishments from his
parents. Ed just felt bad about what was happening to his
parents. He did not
understand why it was ripping them apart. He still does not
understand it all
of the way. An individual that was sloughing was grounded for
two months,
forced to quit his job and do homework every night. Another
individual had
his car taken away and is not allowed to do anything over spring
break. Those
two individuals were planning to take a trip down to St. George to
spend time
with an aunt. His punishment affected both of them and it should have
only
affected one of them. These two individuals are friends of Ed’s. When
parents
care so much about their kids, that it starts effecting other
people’s
children, it becomes more of a mistake. It is also showing that the
parents
think that their ideas are the best ideas in the fact that they are
trying to
make other teenagers parents treat their teenagers the way that
they treat
theirs. Parents trying to change other parents almost never work
out. Every one
in the school was required to pay the large amount of money at
the beginning of
school. We paid for our education. Why should the
administration care what we do
with what we bought? It should make no
difference if we slough or not. If it
should be anybody’s concern, other that
the students’ it should be the
parents. The parents and the student need to
work out a plan that would keep the
student in school. The Vice-Principal
should just notify the parents of the
student’s truancies. It is none of the
state legislature responsibility to
keep kids in school. It is the parents.
If the parents cannot handle the kids
then they need to learn a way to handle
the kids. We are paying good tax money
to keep law and order. So why are the
copy picking up truant students and
spending their time with students when
they could be out keeping traffic laws
upheld or at a car accident helping
somebody that needs help more than
the
student.
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Truant Notes. 1999. 11/6/99 <
http://www.effingpot.com/fun/truants.html
> Yeager, Melanie. Neon Pink
T-Shirts possible punishment for truant students
in Potter County. 1997.
10/13/97 < http://generation-y.com/stories/103197/neon.html
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Roy A. "Mothers sentenced to attend school with truant
daughters," 1997.
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