A Texas judge threw a 17 year old honor student in jail and fined her $100 after she was absent from school again. Last month she was in court for truancy and the judge warned her if she missed more classes she’d go to jail. The junior who is living with her employer after her parents divorced and move said she worked 2 jobs to support herself, her older brother who is attending college and a younger sister that lives with relatives. Her parents unexpectedly divorced last year and moved away. Often she is too tired to wake up on time for school, but is attempting to take advanced placement and college credit courses.
I think the judge made the wrong decision the first time Diane Tran went to court. He should have told her to cut back on her work first or take less challenging classes. I thought labor laws stopped 17 year olds from having full time jobs, much less both a full and part time? I suppose she has been emancipated from her parents and on a work release program at her high school.
The second time she appeared in court the judge should have opened an investigation as to why this 17 year old has much responsibility, ordered her back to school, interviewed her teachers and made sure her employers are not taking advantage of her. Clearly something is wrong in her life if she feels like she has to take care of 3 people. In my personal opinion jail is not the answer and “making and example” of her will not deter most kids from skipping school if they really want to.
“If you let one (truant student) run loose, what are you gonna’ do with the rest of ‘em? Let them go too?” Judge Moriarty asked.
I’m almost positive there are better “candidates” to make an example of if you are in the business of locking up students for truancy. Gotta get em the system early so they can learn the ropes…once you go into jail and are labeled an offender, it’s almost like a freaking revolving door.
She went to jail on a week day so she missed school- again. Which is what I thought the judge was trying to prevent. Let us hope she was not marked truant again.
I hope she does achieve her dreams and does not get stuck in the system since the U.S. has the highest recidivism rate in the world.
Please watch the video:
http://www.khou.com/news/Honor-Student-Jailed-for-Absences-153847275.html
May 25, 2012
Categories: information, news . Tags: Advanced Placement, Diane Tran, Education, High school, Honors student, news, Prison, Student, Texas, Truancy, Work release . Author: wastingtheendtimes . Comments: 2 Comments
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