Students file complaint in court against "cruel and unusual" truancy punishments

[davidn3600]

It's not all that surprising once you realize it's Texas....

(Reuters) - Several students from northeast Texas said they plan to file a federal complaint on Wednesday accusing their school districts of cruel and unusual punishment by prosecuting them in criminal court for missing school or being late for class.

The civil rights complaint, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, is directed at school districts in Dallas and three other communities.

The districts funnel truancy cases to a special court system that prosecuted more than 36,000 cases and collected $2.9 million in fines last year from students convicted of multiple unexcused absences or tardy arrivals, according to the complaint.

Students as young as 12 can be arrested and handcuffed at school. Once they turn 17, they can be jailed for failing to pay past fines, which can run into thousands of dollars, according to the complaint, which was drafted by the National Center for Youth Law and advocacy groups Texas Appleseed and Disability Rights Texas.

"I'm getting treated like a criminal," Ashley Brown, 16, one of the complainants, told Reuters late on Monday. She said she had been erroneously sent to truancy court for four excused absences after her grandmother's death.

http://news.yahoo.com/texas-students-seek-federal-help-soften-cruel-truancy-040740583.html

[madaboutharry]

1. I think this is designed to

funnel kids into the private made for profit prison system. It's disgusting.

[davidn3600]

3. Bingo.

[Lunacee_2013]

2. Great, I'm from NE Texas.

Thank God I'm out of grade school. I'm a type 1 diabetic and because of that I spent more time in the hospital then I did at my local high school. I missed a lot of school which caused a lot of problems. Teachers who didnt believe that I was actually sick so they didn't give me my school work, constant phone calls from the school, falling days to weeks behind my classmates, it was a living nightmare. The only two reasons I didn't get charged with truancy was the fact that my mother use to be a teacher and she's related to some of the higher-ups who run the school.