By Judge Steve Walker
With
school officially back in session for many school districts the past two weeks,
numerous students are still trying to memorize their schedules, remember where
their classes are located and attempting to drop some classes and rearrange
their class schedule to accommodate sports, and other school related
activities. Meanwhile, I am scheduled to
preside over a huge truancy docket tomorrow for cases that were filed at the
end of the last school year.
It
is certainly not unusual to oversee a large docket at the beginning of the
school year. Some of the students I will see will already have logged additional
absences than they accrued by the last school year. The habit is hard to break
for some students.
As
related last in last week’s column, sadly 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. It is a vicious cycle.
As
the sitting Judge, I reiterate the message that the student drop out rate
continues to skyrocket and will continue to escalate unless something changes. It
is expected that the legislature will continue proposing more extensive cuts in
education in the next session as school districts try to downsize without
making major cutbacks and face increased class size that will also hamper the learning
process.
It
is no wonder that remedies like Home Schooling is becoming very popular with
students who are unable to adapt to the radical change. The request for GED
programs to receive diplomas is also increasing at a rapid pace.
As
stated in past columns, the advantage of a court ordered GED versus a student
just signing up for a GED class is that the slow process is expedited in a more
timely manner so that students can move to the next stage in their life as they
look for gainful employment.
The
court order gives preferential treatment to the student and boosts his/her name
higher up the list which encourages them to seek the GED.
This
coming Thursday I will also be hearing a bunch of show cause hearings from
students who did not complete their requirements assessed the last time they
came to court.
Those
are cases of students who continue to violate their probation by continued
failure to attend school or attend remediation of some sort such as counseling.
The students on those cases who are not 17 years old will be most likely be
ordered to juvenile detention in hand cuffs unless they have some really
extenuating circumstances as to why they did not follow the orders of the
court.
If
I sent them to juvenile detention for failure to comply, they will be assigned a
probation officer and immediately sent home with their parent. Once that happens they are no longer under
jurisdiction of the Justice of the Peace Court. They now are under the
supervision of the probation officer. The process continues.
We
also cite parents for contributing to the failure of their children and we hold
them partially responsible for the truancy. Fines can be levied on parents as
well. Sometimes that motivates parents to ensure their children attend school.
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.
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