Free Republic

American children are skipping school in staggering numbers.It’s early September, and children should be back at school, right?Well, many aren’t. With data from 44 states and Washington, DC, the American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) director of education policy, Nat Malkus, discloses that the chronic absenteeism rate—students missing more than 10% of school days each year—was an alarming 23.5% in 2024.Malkus notes that the surge in absenteeism affects districts of all sizes, racial backgrounds, and income levels, but the data does reveal significant differences by race and ethnicity, with 39% of Black students, 36% of Hispanic students, 24% of white students, and...

'This shouldn’t even be a debate': Colorado students march against gun violence Denver7 was there when Jefferson County students walked out of class to demand more be done to stop gun violence in the wake of the Evergreen High School shooting By: Richard ButlerSep 12, 2025 WESTMINSTER, Colo. — Hundreds of students at Standley Lake High School walked out of class Friday afternoon, lining Wadsworth Boulevard with signs and chants calling for an end to gun violence. The demonstration comes just two days after two students were wounded in a shooting at Evergreen High School before the shooter turned the...

Kamala Harris' recent boasts about her tough-on-crime record as California Attorney General have brought back into the spotlight her arrest and prosecution of single black mother Cheree Peoples in 2013, a tragedy I recount in my new short documentary, Arrested by Kamala: A Black Mother's Story.There is a three minutes only version of the interview on You Tube as well, Arrested by Kamala.The story is also told in a riveting rap song of the same name: Arrested by Kamala. In no small part, Harris ascended to power on the backs of minority women, women like Cheree Peoples, a victim of...

Junior highs are cracking down on truancy across the nation. Some Oklahoma school are going even so far as handcuffing middle schoolers and taking them to the slammer according to NBC 16 WNDU.Muskogee Public Schools arrested a 14-year-old in Tulsa, OK at school after he missed too many classes. His mother is outraged and says the arrest was an act of abuse. via NBC 16 WNDU"It’s my fault! Exactly! It’s not my 14 year old sons fault. He doesn't have a car to get himself there."Stephanie - who doesn't want to use her last name - says she's upset her...

Parkland shooting survivor and gun control activist David Hogg says his teachers are “very understanding” when he skips school for gun control rallies. Axios asked Hogg, “How do you do all this and make sure you graduate?” Hogg replied, “Good question. Talking to my teachers and trying to work it out day by day. I was supposed to do a math test yesterday, and I was like, ‘Nah,’ but it works out. My teachers are very understanding.” Axios followed up by asking Hogg if there is more his school could be doing for him. Hogg responded by suggesting his school...

Anti-Trump millennial snowflakes who skipped class to go protest the outcome of the presidential election just got some really bad news. Patriots across America, we now have proof common sense is still alive on at least one college campus! Oberlin College in Ohio is not excusing students who skipped classes and exams to go protest against President-Elect Donald Trump. Failing grades due to missed work during the semester due to protesting, will not be suspended, Cleveland.com reports. Anti-Trump students at Oberlin College circulated a petition to urge the college to institute a “no-fail mercy period.” The petition reportedly garnered 1,300...

PHILADELPHIA – A growing number of Americans are expressing outrage that a Pennsylvania mother of seven died in jail last weekend while serving a 48-hour sentence over unpaid, school truancy-related fines. DiNinoEileen DiNino, 55, was found dead last Saturday in her jail cell. Authorities don’t know the cause of death yet, they have ruled out suspicious behavior. DiNino was being penalized because several of her children routinely missed school. According to the Associated Press, “She had racked up $2,000 in fines, fees and court costs since 1999... The fines related to school truancy are quite small – perhaps $20 –...

Thinking about cutting class in Michigan? Make sure you know someone with whom you can hitch a ride. A state representative wants to revoke driver’s licenses for chronically absent students as part of an initiative to cut down on truancy. State Rep. Andy Schor, D-Lansing, introduced two bills last week that would alert Michigan’s secretary of state—who oversees the issuance of licenses—whenever a student’s truancy gets so severe that his or her school refers the matter to court. The student’s license would be suspended or withheld for six months under the proposed law. …

Reuters) - Several students from northeast Texas said they plan to file a federal complaint on Wednesday accusing their school districts of cruel and unusual punishment by prosecuting them in criminal court for missing school or being late for class. The civil rights complaint, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, is directed at school districts in Dallas and three other communities. The districts funnel truancy cases to a special court system that prosecuted more than 36,000 cases and collected $2.9 million in fines last year from students convicted of multiple unexcused absences or tardy arrivals, according to the...

A 17-year-old high school student working two jobs to support her siblings, while juggling college-level classes, spent 24 hours in jail this week for missing too much school, KHOU 11 News reported. Diane Tran, an 11th-grader at Willis High School in Willis, Texas said she was often too exhausted to get to school in time. Judge Lanny Moriarty said he warned the student last month not to miss any more classes or she would be violating truancy law, KHOU 11 News reported. When she missed school again, he had her thrown in jail. "If you let one run loose, what...

Thanks to a controversial legislative maneuver, Wisconsin's Republican Governor Scott Walker's plan to end collective bargaining for his public employees passed the state senate Wednesday night. Now, in a stunning show of solidarity with their teachers—who, as union members, now have no bargaining rights—Wisconsin's high school students are planning a grassroots school walkout, and they want to take their protest national. Wisconsin Students in Solidarity is asking for the nationwide walkout to happen this Friday, March 11, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. local time. Less than 12 hours after being formed, the Facebook event, Nationwide Student Walkout, has almost 2,000 "attendees"...

Just confirmed on WTMJ, TEACHERS and students from madison West matching on Capitol building. Students carrying signs, nice to know they still have art class. I hope someone in Madison is taking pictures of the teachers, because they need be be terminated. This is the second time they have a led a walkout and illegally removed students from class.

In many ways, Jessamine “Sisy” Brown is a typical high school kid — a student athlete who looked forward to prom and keeps her grades up in the hope of snagging a college scholarship. But Brown, a world champion horseback rider, has found herself in a quandary. Her success as an athlete has caused her trouble at Steele High School, where her numerous absences for competitions have marked her a truant. On Thursday, Brown and her mother, Kimberly Howard, will appear in a Guadalupe County courtroom for a pretrial conference. “I was surprised,” Brown, 17, said about the charge. “I...

DALLAS -- This city is considering joining a rising number of others across the country that are imposing criminal penalties on kids who skip school to hang out at the mall or on local street corners. Such juvenile daytime curfews to combat truancy and crime are drawing protests from groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and from the parents of homeschooled children who, along with some parents of public-school students, object on grounds that such laws in effect criminalize otherwise law-abiding kids who may have good reasons for not being in school. Daytime-curfew laws have long been popular...

Every day hundreds of thousands of students fail to show up to school, often for no good reason. But in Midland, Texas, one judge has come up with some creative ways to make a difference -- so much so that cities across that state are following his lead. n Midland, about 3,500 students, or 10 percent of the student population, regularly skip school -- and truancy is often a step toward dropping out altogether. For those who habitually miss class, they'll see more than the principal -- they'll end up in front of Judge David Cobos. Cobos is known as...

More than 90,000 of New York City’s elementary school students — roughly 20 percent — missed at least a month of classes during the last school year, with attendance problems most acute in central Brooklyn, Harlem and the South Bronx, according to a report scheduled for release on Tuesday. “Chronic absenteeism in elementary schools is disproportionately a problem in poor and minority communities and it immediately puts students behind their middle-class peers,” concludes the report, by the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School. “The academic pressures build over time and build quickly.” The situation was worse...

SEASIDE, Calif. — A 15-year-old girl who stopped an out-of-control school bus she was riding on was handed a Saturday detention instead because she was skipping school. Marina High School student Amanda Rouse was on a bus with 40 elementary school students Wednesday morning when the driver fell out of her seat after a turn and hit her head. Rouse jumped up and applied the brakes, bringing the bus to a halt after striking two parked cars. No one was injured.

Antiwar protesters lambasted the Berkeley Police Department — accusing officers of knocking them down and stomping them, among other things — at last night's Berkeley Police Review Commission meeting to review a petition regarding police crowd control tactics allegedly used last month on said protesters outside the downtown U.S. Marine Corps recruitment office. Representatives from World Can't Wait, Code Pink, and Berkeley Copwatch talked and showed video clips of demonstrations. The BPD went unrepresented. Commissioner Victoria Urbi announced that she had sent the police chief an invitation on Monday, but that given the short notice he had declared himself unable...

Judge: Truant kids’ parents face jail ASSOCIATED PRESS PENSACOLA — Parents of kids who habitually skip school could find themselves locked up under an aggressive plan to curb truancy in this Florida Panhandle community. Parents who ignore several warnings and offers of help will have to explain to a judge why they shouldn’t face jail time for misdemeanor charges. Escambia County school officials worked with Circuit Judge Ross Goodman to toughen the consequences. “If the parent is not sending the child to school, then I can send the parent to jail,” Goodman said. School officials said 177 of the district’s...

A Marion woman convicted of allowing her 15-year-old son to remain truant for nearly an entire school year says she was home-schooling the child.