I guess I am on the other side on this one. I had a truant teen once upon a time. I did everything I could to make him go to school. At one point, before I gave up and sent him to “reform” school which was very expensive, I re-arranged my work schedule and went to school with him and made sure he attended class by escorting him everywhere with the permission of the school. He was, of course, mortified. I had one teen come up to tell me that cutting class wasn’t so bad, she cut class all the time, and I was a horrible parent to do this to him. I asked the girl for her mother’s phone number and if her mother told me to stop I might consider it. The girl refused, telling me that if I talked to her mother she would decide to do the same thing. Anyway, if I could have persuaded the police to haul my son off to jail, and let him sit there for a couple of weeks, he might change his mind about cutting class. So, I think this mother should back the school and the police up, not try to take the blame for her son’s irresponsible behavior. As long as the kid thinks his parents are upset with what the authorities did, his behavior is not going to change, in fact I think it will get worse. So, I think this is an excellent idea to combat truancy, the only change I would make is to put a camera and microphone in the student’s classroom(s) and make the kid attend classes virtually. Classroom success would get him out of jail, goofing off keeps him in jail.
A voice of reason.
Thank you.
Good discussion. The ignorant parent needs to realize the consequences of her actions and future she is setting her kid up for. I do wonder why mom and dad were not the ones arrested or also arrested. The kid is their responsibility.