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Mom Arrested, Shackled Over Son's Unexcused School Absences
insider.foxnews.com ^ | May 21, 2015

Posted on 05/22/2015 5:25:17 AM PDT by ilovesarah2012

A Georgia mother and substitute teacher says she was arrested and placed in shackles because of her son's unexcused absences.

Julie Giles reportedly wrote on Facebook that a warrant had been issued for her arrest after her son tallied 12 unexcused absences from school.

The total is six more than the Screven County school district allows. Giles argued that her son's doctor re-issued a note for three of the absences, meaning she would be arrested over a total of three absences.

Giles said she was briefly placed in ankle shackles, with police saying it was normal procedure. She was released and given a court date in July, but faces jail time.

Giles said her son is an A and B student, but often misses school because of illness. Due to higher copays than she can afford, she said sometimes she must keep her children home without being able to get a doctor's note.

WTOC-TV reported:

Screven County Schools Superintendent, William Bland, says this is not unusual, that they are following the law, and that "several" parents have already been convicted in these situations this school year, after not being able to work out a solution with school officials.

(Excerpt) Read more at insider.foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Georgia
KEYWORDS: education
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To: Popman
"The only excuse for missing school is you are dead... Of course any fever above 101 would qualify...which was a few times a year..."

and this drives me nuts..... you see my wife has a severe disabling chronic illness. Because of these stupid policies about attendance people send their kids to school sick, which in turn makes everyone else sick. This happens over and over again kids bringing home illnesses because the other kids should have just stayed home when they where sick but can't.

Where we used to live they had a ridiculous attendance policy. They would only allow a kid to miss 3 days per quarter for anything. It didn't make a difference whether or not they had an legitimate excuse.

With all of that said there are times where we had to send our kids to school sick because of this policy. Also there are some times that they did get seriously sick and had to miss more than their allowed days. We kept the school updated with their condition, the school allowed it under their homebound sickness policy, we picked up their work and the school worked with us. We never where arrested for truancy court. If we hadn't been responsible and communicated with the school, we would have probably been arrested for truancy court.

I think there is more to this story. That school most likely had a homebound policy also for kids that are ill for long periods of time.

41 posted on 05/22/2015 6:32:46 AM PDT by justlittleoleme
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To: fatnotlazy
Otherwise, make sure your child goes to school.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Here are two questions:

What if it could be proven that the child learns nothing in a Prussian-model government school? Would you still support paying up to $30,000 per year per child for a schooling program that was nearly completely ineffective?

What if it could be proven that** no **child ( academically successful or illiterate and innumerate) learns anything significant in a Prussian model government school?

A Stanford professor of education once e-mailed me a told me that studies have **never** been done to show **where** a child is learning and **who** is doing the teaching! Is it the teacher or parents, tutors and the child himself? Is it the prison-like school or in the home?

I ask these questions because it is my anecdotal observation that academically successful children ( whether institutionalized or homeschooled) are doing the **same** amount of formal studying at the kitchen table **in the home**! Their families also share very similar home habits and value for education.

So?...Both groups of academically successful kids ( home and institutionalized) are achieving the same levels of literacy and numeracy but one group ( homeschooled) does not go to school.

My conclusion:

Maybe, just maybe, the school is doing ***nothing***! Maybe, just maybe, we spend up to $30,000/year/child on a schooling program that is completely ineffective!

Maybe, just maybe, the only thing government institutionalization does is send home a very expensive curriculum that the academically successful child, parents, and tutors follow **in the home**!

42 posted on 05/22/2015 6:34:24 AM PDT by wintertime (Stop treating government teachers like they are reincarnated Mother Teresas!)
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To: justlittleoleme
What about our God-given and First Amendment right NOT TO ASSEMBLE with people we think might be sick????

There is more to the First Amendment than freedom of speech. Free Assembly is also a right given to us by **GOD*** and is included in the First Amendment!

Yeah! I am shouting. I am exasperated!

When are conservatives going to wake up to the fact that government schooling trashes every First Amendment Right ( gifts from God)?

Solution: End compulsory education laws and begin the process of privatizing al schooling.

43 posted on 05/22/2015 6:38:45 AM PDT by wintertime (Stop treating government teachers like they are reincarnated Mother Teresas!)
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To: justlittleoleme

My point in my post was, we simply didn’t take our kids word they were sick... We actually checked their the temperature and for signs of illness...

90 % of the time, they were fine and dandy, just didn’t want to go to school...

Of course if they actually sick... They got to stay home in bed, no T.V. No telephone but reading...


44 posted on 05/22/2015 6:40:17 AM PDT by Popman (Christ Alone: My Cornerstone...)
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To: ilovesarah2012
Wow...amazing to watch conservatives immediately side with the government school and the police. Heck my senior year of high school I missed over 25 days of school. Took off every Wed to hang out with my dad (retired HS teacher). BTW I would ask to pull the records of every teacher and administrator and see how many days of work they missed this year.

“In our secular society, school has become the replacement for church, and like church it requires that its teachings must be taken on faith.” ― John Taylor Gatto

45 posted on 05/22/2015 6:40:55 AM PDT by happyhomemaker (Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Rom 12:12)
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To: wintertime
Behind every government K-12 school teacher stands an armed policeman with real bullets in those guns on the hip.

That's the thing people have to remember. Schools are a government entity.

46 posted on 05/22/2015 6:41:21 AM PDT by Darren McCarty (We need a conservative electable candidate in 2016)
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To: ilovesarah2012
I understand compulsory schooling laws, but sending the cops to arrest mom after 11 absences is crap.

There's a reason I'll never send my kid to public schools. They are too much like prisons.

47 posted on 05/22/2015 6:43:23 AM PDT by Darren McCarty (We need a conservative electable candidate in 2016)
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To: momtothree

Please read my post #43.


48 posted on 05/22/2015 6:43:38 AM PDT by wintertime (Stop treating government teachers like they are reincarnated Mother Teresas!)
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To: ilovesarah2012
Here is the revised edition, ilovesarah2012:

The important questions to ask here are, “Why do we have compulsory education laws? What about the First Amendment right to free assembly?”

The government is violating his ( and his mother's ) First Amendment Right to free assembly by forcing him into a prison-like environment. The government is also trashing the First Amendment Rights of the other children who are forced into assembly with a kid who shouldn't be there as he would likely make their lives miserable.

49 posted on 05/22/2015 6:46:09 AM PDT by wintertime (Stop treating government teachers like they are reincarnated Mother Teresas!)
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To: happyhomemaker

GOOD POINT! ( yeah!)

How many days has the principal missed? How many days do the teachers?


50 posted on 05/22/2015 6:47:32 AM PDT by wintertime (Stop treating government teachers like they are reincarnated Mother Teresas!)
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To: ilovesarah2012
If he's an A/B student he's probably bored as hell at school. They teach to the lowest common denominator.

My bets are on the federal funds if the kid isn't in school.

51 posted on 05/22/2015 6:47:40 AM PDT by PLOM...NOT! (Checking in from Wisconsin)
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To: taxcontrol; AppyPappy
Simple informing does not cut it anymore. I have a 10-year old who is susceptible to respiratory and stomach illnesses, most of which can be treated with OTC medication and a day home from school. He missed ten days this year, two of which were for a Thanksgiving trip home to see grandparents (counted as unexcused even though school was informed). 5 other days were for a bout of pneumonia, under doctors orders, and the other three for head colds, stomach bug, and allergies.

Needless to say, I got a nasty-gram from the school principal about three weeks ago threatening to sic the law on us if he missed any more without a doctor's note (co-pays and all). I called her up and reached a quick understanding, but the clear threat of fines and jail where in that letter, which I did not appreciate, and I told her so.

With that said, there is clear tension between pediatricians who demand that kids take days off from school to recover from their illnesses (and to not spread them), and school administrators, who want the kids there even when they are sick because of the "instructional time" pressures associated with Common Core testing.

It's becoming an untenable situation, and this lady is a fine example of what happens when you get caught up in it.

52 posted on 05/22/2015 6:47:58 AM PDT by Timber Rattler (Just say NO! to RINOS and the GOP-E)
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To: ilovesarah2012

When people advocate that government must perform a function, they only think that government will be competent, rational, thoughtful, careful and not abuse any citizen. But the truth must always be hammered: that government is only power, and in the end it can only threaten to use force up to and including force that leads to death of the citizen.

When you ask a person who advocates that government must enforce such and such a law, if it is so important that they would shoot their own grandmother in the head if she politely declined to obey the law, such people recoil in horror that anyone would ask such an outrageous question. Yet that is exactly what can happen. This poor woman could have been tazered or shot had she gotten too uppity with the officers and it would have been dismissed because the officer was merely following department policy.

Well the policy of my department is to respect the liberty of others and to only involve government when there are no other means left to have an peaceful society.


53 posted on 05/22/2015 6:48:44 AM PDT by theBuckwheat
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To: Popman

That’s understandable, just a pet peeve of mine due to our situation.

We went through some years where we had the same problem with our kids. If we didn’t watch and check temperatures they would miss every day.

Found this on that school districts’ website.

Here is that schools attendance policy.
http://www.screven.k12.ga.us/Portals/Screven/District/docs/Compulsory%20Attendance.pdf

I have seen much worse stricter policies than this...

I do however believe these laws are ridiculous and are tied strictly to funding for the schools. Being arrested because your kids miss a few too many school days is just wrong though, no matter what their rules are.


54 posted on 05/22/2015 6:49:57 AM PDT by justlittleoleme
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To: Popman
but a educated population is what a civil growing culture does to maintain a level of prosperity and peace...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Please read my post

but a educated population is what a civil growing culture does to maintain a level of prosperity and peace...

Where are the studies proving that learning happens in a school? Answer: There are none.

Studies that would separate out that which is learned in a classroom from that which is learned **at home** by way of the parent, tutors ( paid and unpaid,) study clubs ( as in common in Asian communities) and the child himself doing homework **in the home** have never been done!

It is completely possible that we spend up to $30,000 per year per child on government institutionalization that is possibly completely ineffective!

It is completely possible that the only thing government K-12 internment camps do is send home a very expensive curriculum that is followed by the parents, tutors, and the child **in the home**!

Where are the studies that prove schools teach? Answer: There are none.

It is unknown where learning happens. Is it in the school by a teacher, or **in the home** by parents, tutors ( paid and unpaid), or the child himself doing homework **in the home**.

55 posted on 05/22/2015 6:53:35 AM PDT by wintertime (Stop treating government teachers like they are reincarnated Mother Teresas!)
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To: Rides_A_Red_Horse

“The only reason for shackling a suspect should be that they are an extreme flight risk or are highly likely to be violent.”

They do that because they never know when someone is going to try something stupid. Probably has saved some lives, police and civilian.


56 posted on 05/22/2015 6:55:58 AM PDT by PLMerite ("The issue is never the issue. The issue is the Revolution.")
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To: Popman
That should read:

Please read my post #42.

Plenty of illiterate and innumerate kids are graduating from government school. It seems government schooling is free to nothing about educating kids.

Again:

Where are the studies that prove schools are actually doing the teaching? The answer to this question is these studies have never been done.

57 posted on 05/22/2015 6:57:20 AM PDT by wintertime (Stop treating government teachers like they are reincarnated Mother Teresas!)
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To: theBuckwheat

POST OF THE DAY!!!!

DING! DING! DING! DING!

You get it. You are one of the very few on Free Republic who do when it comes to government schooling.


58 posted on 05/22/2015 6:59:54 AM PDT by wintertime (Stop treating government teachers like they are reincarnated Mother Teresas!)
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To: nathanbedford

If state law was written in a fashion to hold the parents responsible...it’s this gal’s tough luck.

I think the better tactic to use....simply fail the kid after the 10th unexcused absence, and let him repeat a year. That might get the kid’s attention real quick if he knew how simple it was to fail him.


59 posted on 05/22/2015 7:00:10 AM PDT by pepsionice
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To: Darren McCarty
I don't understand compulsory education laws.

It's not as if the government is very successful at educating kids. There are plenty of high school grad who are illiterate and innumerate. And...It is worse for kids who did attend but didn't finish.

Please read my post #42. There is no proof that government schools actually teach anything. No studies have ever been done!

60 posted on 05/22/2015 7:03:48 AM PDT by wintertime (Stop treating government teachers like they are reincarnated Mother Teresas!)
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