Naples, Florida Mom Jailed After Daughter Misses School 118 Times (Florida Wacko Judge Alert)

Naples Daily News ^ | 8-18-02 | Chris Colby

[Endeavor]

Oh PUhleeze, waiting tables can be demeaning? And that's your excuse for letting this woman off the hook? Have you ever thought of converting to the democratic party? You'd be a great candidate.

[Endeavor]

Of course you would. I didn't expect you to see another point of view, based on your earlier comments.

[Dawgs of War]

The reason our public schools are failing is because no one pays consequences for improper behavior. This includes educators, students, and parents.

[Dawgs of War]

Excellent post!

[Mulder]

The point is, life is not meant to be entertainment for you or anyone else.

Speak for yourself. The purpose of my life is NOT to satisify (nor compel others to satisfy) some compulsory "requirement" by a corrupt bureacracy.

It is what it is.

It is what you make it.

This young lady will benefit from getting up and going to school and getting back into a routine, not to mention, from LEARNING reading, writing and arithmetic.

What evidence do you have that she isn't learning? As far as "benefiting" from attending a public school, you'll find millions of productive and intelligents adults who will disagree with that.

Get serious, this judge is just holding this woman accountable after HOW many times to make it right? Many, man times.

I don't see the big deal about missing 30 or 40 days of school per year. The important thing is learning, not satisfying some arbitrary set of rules composed by some bureaucrat or politician.

[Endeavor]

Speak for myself - I have been, but you have tin ears to didn't hear it.

I hope you have stock in Reynolds Wrap - you're going to need it.

[Mulder]

Speak for myself - I have been, but you have tin ears to didn't hear it. I hope you have stock in Reynolds Wrap - you're going to need it.

That made a lot of sense.

[Endeavor]

Why thank you. I thought you, who was bored with everything in school, could have worked through a typo, but that was apparently giving you too much credit.

No surprise you choose to be spoon fed.

[LBGA]

I think you and MFH are not too far off on opinions. This woman has let her daughter act out WAY too many times, hence the bureaucratic injunction.

This poor overworked mother hasn't handled her crisis, which affects her children, well. Although I am against government intervention in a family matter, sometimes it takes a shock like a threat from the government to make the mother react.

She is hurting, too, and doing everything she can to provide a living for her children. In times gone by, the community would have helped her deal with the loss of her husband, and possibly gotten help for her children to cope with their loss and continue with their lives.

I can say from personal experience that providing the income to keep a family in a home sometimes seems more important than the personal nurturing of the children.

The court system that put this mother in jail was way overboard. What she needed was a community which would help her and her children get back on their feet emotionally. (and not the Hillary "It Takes a Village" kind of community).

It took a letter from the bureaucracy to get me to snap out of my own fears and deal with my children's issues. This woman should have snapped out of it and taken control before the jail sentence for I am sure she had plenty of warning. The bureaucracy loves to write letters. But the bureaucracy, starting with the dauighter's teachers, should have intervened to help this child short of putting the mother in jail.

[LBGA]

The reason our public schools are failing is because no one pays consequences for improper behavior. This includes educators, students, and parents.

I have to agree with you on that... with the exception of "moi."

I hate it that children who misbehave are not punished, and that tests and curilula are "dumbed down" to benefit those who won't try. I also hate it that good students who are not street wise are suspended for having something sharp (in plastic) on their keychains, and there is no thinking whatsoever when it comes to meeting out punishment. What a disgrace our school system has become.

[Mulder]

Why thank you. I thought you, who was bored with everything in school, could have worked through a typo, but that was apparently giving you too much credit.

Are you a woman by any chance? Your arguments on this thread have been totally emotionally and directed on a personal (instead of issue-related) basis.

Back to the issue at hand: if the kid is learning, I don't care how many days of school they miss.

Hell, I wish that a learning child would miss even more days of school, which would reduce the number of teachers that would be required, therefore reducing my taxes.

I applaud any parent who puts the welfare of their child ahead of some "policy" set by an "indoctrination center specialist".

[Mulder]

This woman should have snapped out of it and taken control before the jail sentence for I am sure she had plenty of warning.

What if the child was a "straight-A" student, despite missing a lot of school?

The article makes no mention of poor academic performance, which leads me to believe that she is doing well (academically) in school.

If she wasn't doing well, surely that would have been one of the main pieces of evidence against the parent.

It is quite likely that this case is more about "enforcing the rules" than the well-being of the child. On a side note, I've read somewhere that the funding for schools is based partially on how many days of school students attend. Maybe that has something to do with it also.

[muggs]

Boris don't be too sure about that. It more than likely counteracted with his heart medication and slowed his heart down to nothing.

That's a possibility, because it is nearly impossible to kill yourself with an overdose of Valium unless alcohol or another drug are involved.

[muggs]

These kids need consistency

How much consistency are they going to have with their only parent in jail.

[Endeavor]

Your points are well taken. I don't really see what more the school system could have done. They shouldn't be parents to these kids. Should they have compassion? Yes and I think they have. This woman clearly had let responsibility for getting her kids to school on time lapse well before her husband's untimely death.

Are there emotional issues there? Sure. But at some point, we all have to gut it up and do the right thing. You did. And it took a threatening response from the courts to alert you to your responsibility. I'd bet this woman had one of those letters, too, and chose to ignore it for whatever reasons, be they well-intentioned or not.

The point is, we have laws regarding school attendance meant to be a way of looking out for kids. No one suddenly changed a law and things "slipped up" on this mother.

I have a friend whose husband died very suddenly and left her with a 2 yr old daughter to raise. It was a devastating shock but she has shouldered the load. It isn't easy - in fact it is rather difficult (as you know), but she has done it. She had an extremely difficult childhood and has many, many scars from it. She had an extremely difficult marriage and was left with no money to carry on alone with her daughter. Somehow, she has done it because there was no other alternative which was acceptable to her. That's my point here, that we can't allow people to simply crumble into nothingness.

You are also dead on in saying that the woman in this article could have used some help from friends and the community. Yet, there comes a time when no matter what we wish had happened or what "should" have happened doesn't matter - getting up and doing the right thing so that your kids have a better life should be the number one focus. When it isn't, as in this case, the law kicked in. I'm not ashamed of that and don't see it as an example of Hillary's "It Takes A Village." But we can agree to disagree on that.

[Endeavor]

Why, do you hate women as much as you hate authority?

[ProudAmerican2]

Educating children is the parents responsibility.

Single parents?

[LBGA]

I guess we do agree, to a point.

Sometimes after a traumatic situation such as the death of a spouse, the other parent withdraws and focuses on survival, and doesn't do what is necessary for the children to break out of the depression as well.

I needed someone to kick me in the pants so that I would kick my child in the pants.

All I am saying is that in the perfect situation, someone might have intervened before the bureaucracy got involved. She needed to shock her daughter out of the depression oriented action of missing school, but she was too weak to deal with it.

[Endeavor]

Well, unless you are going to step in personally and care for them while their mother is in jail, I can't say for this specific family? Because we don't all personally open our doors to those in need, we have set up a foster care system to take its place. Is it perfect? No. But until you and all the rest of us open ours door and take these kids in and care for them, that is the next alternative, assuming there is no related family member available to step in and shoulder the responsibility.

[LBGA]

There is no consideration on how well the child does in school. My child was in the gifted program.

This is a by-the-numbers issue. They don't care what is going right for the child.