The Issue of Truancy Among The Students and The Factors Behind It

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 their 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 anything 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 student’s 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 wellbeing. 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 anything 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 affecting 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.

Everyone 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.