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.

Bibliography
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> 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
> Jones, Roy A. “Mothers sentenced to attend school with truant
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