children out of school in america - University of Tennessee Digital ...

A Denver school official stated: "You haven't solved
anything by suspending for truancy. To me, it's
ridiculous: the crime and the punishment are identical.
"36
Institutionalizing children for truancy seems to us
even more unjustifiable and punitive. For the children
it can be extremely destructive as some of our
young clients illustrate. In Pickens County, South
Carolina, it apparently is common practice in the
school system to refer truants to court for prosecution.
Because there are no youth detention facilities
in the county, the court routinely places these children
in the custody of the County Sheriff, who places
them in the county jail. Two of our clients, Larry
W. and Gerald F., both young white children, after
an adjudication of truancy, were held in the same
cellblock with adult prisoners in the Pickens County
jail. Their cells were left open overnight. As a result,
they were brutally raped and beaten in jail. 37
Surely Pickens County School and law enforcement
officials who resort to such punitive measures could
find other ways to work with children who do not
go to school.
Enforcement of Compulsory Attendance Provisions
When we asked parents in our survey whether the
compulsory attendance laws were being enforced, we
received a mixed response. 41 percent of the total
number of parents who responded thought the laws
were enforced; 42 percent thought they were not enforced;
17 percent did not know. In many places,
parents and other community members perceived
truancy enforcement as lax and haphazard.
"When a child is out of school, no truant officer
ever comes around to find out why the child is not
in school. That's what they're getting paid for so
they should do their job."
37 See Larry W. el al. v. William Leeke et al., Civil Action
No. 74-986 (D.S.C.) filed August 1, 1974, by attorneys for
the Children's Defense Fund to enjoin the incarceration
of children with adult prisoners in adult jails throughout
the State of South Carolina and to seek damages on behalf
of the minor plaintiffs who were physically and emotionally
assaulted.
38 Interview with Father Bill Leonard, Somerville Urban
Ministry, Somerville, Massachusetts, 9/27/73.
"The kids who aren't even present in class get
marked present because the schools get paid
for it."
"Let me tell you things are not like they used to
be. Teachers don't care about kids. Truant officers
don't come around. There's a kid around
the corner who is 12 or 13 years old and in the
sixth grade. He told me the other day he had
dropped out and gotten himself a little job."
"I see a lot of kids that are out of school. I see
kids during the day who aren't in school. My
kids want to skip and when I don't let them, they
say: 'How come those other kids don't go?' "
"I see 12, 13, 14 year olds and they're not in
school. Some never go at all and the ones that
are enrolled only go when they feel like it. Next
door there's a 16-year-old boy who hasn't been
in school for two years. And another one just got
suspended and I don't think she's going at all.
Nobody cares."
"Us mothers enforce it. Denver Public Schools
just expel kids if they mess up. Lots of kids
around this neighborhood don't go to school."
"My daughter cut class for one month and I didn't
know anything about it until she was suspended."
"Any day there are 150 kids out there, hanging
around, not in school."
"I see all kinds of kids walking around; it doesn't
seem like they have a truant officer any more."
"There are kids who miss practically half the year
and are promoted."
"No, there are lots of kids below 16 dropping out.
Kids are not encouraged to stay in school."
Many parents, especially minority group people
and poor whites, believed that truancy provisions
were enforced discriminatorily. Some felt that school
officials did not care about black, Spanish-speaking,
or poor white children, and so let them drop out
without pursuing them. They thought more attention
would be paid to middle-class white children
who exhibited problems and did not stay in school.
A community worker in SomervilJe, Massachusetts,
for example, said the school system overlooked
truancy problems of children they really did not like.
Especially if children were 16 or over, if they were
not liked and stayed out, no one was sent after
them. 38
Some parents, however, held that the enforcement
of attendance laws was an instrument of harassment
that was used against disliked children and their
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