"Ask the Judge" column continues in La Prensa of SA

Ask the Judge: More on Truancy
By Judge Steve Walker

With school officially back in session, unfortunately many students will once again fall into the habit of skipping school when they get bored, overwhelmed, forced to work, deal with pregnancy and lack of day care when they have babies, gang participation, family crisis, domestic violence, homelessness and students and families who do not value or see the need for education.

“Ask the Judge” reminded the reader last week that the student drop out rate continues to skyrocket and will continue to escalate if the second round of proposed cuts in education by the legislature in the next legislative session take effect.

Due to all these mitigating circumstances, Home Schooling is becoming very popular with students who face the above dilemmas and the requests to take a GED test so they may get on with their lives is increasing as well. The advantage of a court ordered GED versus a student just signing up for a GED class is that the waiting time to enroll in a GED program is lengthy. The court order gives preferential treatment to the student and boosts his/her name higher up the list.

My first truancy docket this year will be held September 10^th followed by a huge docket of show causes of cases from last year. Those are cases of students who continue to violate their probation by continued failure to attend school. Many of those students who are not 17 years old will be most likely to be sent to juvenile detention in hand cuffs unless they have some really extenuating circumstances as to why they continue to violate by not remedying their lack of attendance or other stipulations mandated by the court. They are assigned a probation officer and immediately sent home with their parent.  They now are under the supervision of the probation officer.

In Pct. 2 unlike other JP Courts, students are required to attend tutoring classes rather than be assessed community service. As a retired teacher who spent 26 years in the classroom I understand it accomplishes better results first hand. When a student attends tutoring in lieu of community service, it makes a bigger impact on the student.

If the student skips because he or she feels inadequate in a given subject and is fearful of rejection by fellow students or experiences feelings of inferiority, successful tutoring bolsters their self esteem and they tend not to act out at school. Their perception of school is more positive. If the student is actually a good or above average student who is merely bored, mandating that they do the tutoring for a fellow student also gives them positive responses from others and they feel like they accomplished something. 

HB350 that was passed in the last legislative session allows me the latitude to successfully implement the program.

Remember since we also cite parents for contributing to the failure of their children, we hold them partially responsible for the truancy. Fines can be levied, mandating parents sit in class with the students during the day, sign them in to class, and more also helps the students be more conscientious in attending their classes. 

Lastly as always, be sure to show up to court on time. It is in everyone’s best interest.

Justice of the Peace, Pct. 2 Steve Walker is a Vietnam Veteran and a former Journalist.(Column-79 weeks running in the Sunday Edition of La Prensa)