Got referred to court for excessive absence?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around a participant's experience of being referred to court for excessive absences from school. Participants share their personal experiences with attendance policies, the implications of truancy, and the relationship between attendance and academic performance. The conversation touches on the emotional impact of such situations, particularly during a stressful time like finals week.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Meta-discussion

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses disbelief at being labeled as having excessive absences, asserting their status as an honor student.
  • Another participant shares their own experience of being a "perpetual truant" without facing consequences, suggesting that some students may feel above the law.
  • Some participants propose that attendance should not be strictly enforced, arguing that it does not correlate with academic performance.
  • Others counter that attendance does impact grades, citing personal experiences in rigorous classes where attendance was expected for success.
  • A participant discusses the burden of excessive assignments in honors classes, contrasting it with their college experience where they feel they learn more with less busy work.
  • Concerns are raised about the seriousness of truancy notices and the potential legal implications for students and their parents.
  • Emotional responses are shared, with one participant expressing worry and depression over the situation, especially during finals week.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants exhibit a mix of agreement and disagreement regarding the implications of attendance policies and their effects on students. While some share similar experiences of being high-achieving students despite absences, others emphasize the importance of attendance for academic success. The discussion remains unresolved with multiple competing views on the topic.

Contextual Notes

Participants mention various personal circumstances, such as changes in address and the stress of finals, which may affect their perspectives on attendance and truancy. There is also a mention of differing school policies regarding assignments and attendance, which may influence the discussion.

Who May Find This Useful

Students navigating school attendance policies, parents concerned about truancy implications, and individuals interested in the relationship between attendance and academic performance may find this discussion relevant.

PrudensOptimus
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Lol,

Today I got a mail from City Hall that says my school turned in something say I have excessive absence. Says I have to goto court. :smile:

I'm going to take this letter to my principle, or should I take it to someone else?

Btw, I am honor student, no excessive absence whatever the bs is.
 
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PrudensOptimus said:
Lol,

Today I got a mail from City Hall that says my school turned in something say I have excessive absence. Says I have to goto court. :smile:

I'm going to take this letter to my principle, or should I take it to someone else?

Btw, I am honor student, no excessive absence whatever the bs is.
Prudens, are you in high school?
 
hahaha
I was a "perpetual truant" my senior year. Nothing happened - I was an IB student.
 
I was in the high math/sciences track in my two last years. We were above the law :smile:
 
I would hand in the note if I were you. Better get it sorted out in case anything bad comes out of it.

Joining the list of truants, I'm another one that hardly attends classes. And I also have a very bad homework record to go along with it. While I'm not that smart, I AM above the school system.

Sadly, there are no "advanced placement" classes here. :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:
 
PrudensOptimus said:
Lol,

Today I got a mail from City Hall that says my school turned in something say I have excessive absence. Says I have to goto court.

I'm going to take this letter to my principle, or should I take it to someone else?

Btw, I am honor student, no excessive absence whatever the bs is.

The irony of the situation: I bet you have to miss your classes to go to court! I would get a kick out of going to the court proceedings, passively, and see how far it goes before the judge finds out that you are an honors student without a truancy problem. Bring your grades with you.
 
Prudens, you're just like me :wink:.
Schools should really stop taking attendance since it has become obvious that attendance has absolutely no affect on grades. For example, look at my high school grades

http://myfiles.dyndns.org/pictures/attendance.jpg

If it looks photoshopped, that's because it is. I removed the semester grade breakdown, the teacher names, the code for each course, and teacher comments.
Those aren't even the complete grades. I scored a lot better on the finals (50% of the course mark) than I did in each course.
 
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ShawnD said:
Prudens, you're just like me :wink:.
Schools should really stop taking attendance since it has become obvious that attendance has absolutely no affect on grades.

Hmm. For you maybe, but I have plenty of data that suggests otherwise. It could be that your class wasn't as challenging as it should have been. In my honors class (not even AP), I have never had a student miss more than 10 days of school and still get an A.
 
The classes were hard enough, trust me. One of the members on this board gave me a link to an AP Physics test he was studying for, and the questions were just like the ones my physics class was doing.

The grade also depends on whether your classes do assignments or not. Since my chem and physics classes were honors classes, they assumed we knew what we were doing so they didn't give us assignments. The math 30 was packed with smart kids so the teachers assumed we knew what we were doing; again, no assignments. Math 31 is a calculus class not needed for graduation; only students genuinely wanting to go to university are in that class. Very few assignments in that class (most of the class was just having fun with the teacher).

Yeah so give fewer assignments and give people like me a break :biggrin:.
 
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  • #10
Sounds like you're a "natural." Still...
I don't recommend it to most people.
 
  • #11
ShawnD said:
The classes were hard enough, trust me. One of the members on this board gave me a link to an AP Physics test he was studying for, and the questions were just like the ones my physics class was doing.

The grade also depends on whether your classes do assignments or not. Since my chem and physics classes were honors classes, they assumed we knew what we were doing so they didn't give us assignments. The math 30 was packed with smart kids so the teachers assumed we knew what we were doing; again, no assignments. Math 31 is a calculus class not needed for graduation; only students genuinely wanting to go to university are in that class. Very few assignments in that class (most of the class was just having fun with the teacher).

Yeah so give fewer assignments and give people like me a break :biggrin:.
My daughter is in honors and AP classes and she is swamped with assignments.
 
  • #12
Evo said:
My daughter is in honors and AP classes and she is swamped with assignments.

It's called busy work. I find myself doing a lot less assignments in college than high school but I'm learning 100x more. Doing 30 problems in math over the same material in high school just for the sake of turning it in was a waste of my time. Now I do as many as I feel confortable until I understand the material.
 
  • #13
dduardo said:
It's called busy work. I find myself doing a lot less assignments in college than high school but I'm learning 100x more. Doing 30 problems in math over the same material in high school just for the sake of turning it in was a waste of my time. Now I do as many as I feel confortable until I understand the material.
Teachers at her school are notorius for dumping so much work on these poor kids that they have no free time.

The rule for math is that if you have a single outstanding assignment, you are not allowed to take any tests. I hate her school, so does she.
 
  • #14
I've called them and told them I received this letter late due to my change of address. Nobody was there, so I left msg, I hope they hear it.

What are some possible perdicts? I am still a little worried because you don't know how bad people are these days... One of the lady in the attendence office is not very friendly... Though I believe love and respect would show my attitude toward people... she reported me to the truancy court without even notifying me beforehand... sigh. (I didn't know anything about these rules, too busy for finals and AP exams.)

Now I am somewhat depressed. Mother's day just passed, finally made my mother happy for one time... now this thing comes in. and it's final week of school. The only thing that keeps me alive now is my faith in Christ.
 
  • #15
and yes, I'm still in high school.
 
  • #16
Don't worry, your grades will pull you through. I just hope you don't have any past criminal offenses like stealing or B&E; those will really bring you down.
 
  • #17
PrudensOptimus, let me guess, you have a twin sister, your being followed by an overzealous truant officer (Eugene Levy), and your accused of kidnapping a sentor's dog. Hmm...sounds familiar:

http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&cf=info&id=1808503931
 
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  • #18
I thought prudens was a guy...
 
  • #19
PrudensOptimus said:
I've called them and told them I received this letter late due to my change of address. Nobody was there, so I left msg, I hope they hear it.

What are some possible perdicts? I am still a little worried because you don't know how bad people are these days... One of the lady in the attendence office is not very friendly... Though I believe love and respect would show my attitude toward people... she reported me to the truancy court without even notifying me beforehand... sigh. (I didn't know anything about these rules, too busy for finals and AP exams.)
Prudens, if your school actually sent notice to the District Attorney's office, you need to take this very seriously, your parents, not you, can be jailed and/or fined. It should only be a warning, though you wouldn't have a court date for a warning. Getting good grades does not matter when it comes to truancy. My daughter is an honor student. Your parents should consult an attorney that handles truancy, the attorney can look at the letter and advise them on what to do.

I don't know what the truancy laws are in the state in which you live. Here if a student has 6 absences in a semester, they can be found truant. An absence is per class period, not per day. If you are late more than 9 minutes to a class, it is counted as an absence. You can get 6 -7 absences in a single day.

I found all this out because when my daughter turned 16 last October and got her own car, she started picking up her best friend in the morning on the way to school, and then they would drive somewhere for lunch. So, she was late almost every morning and late returning from lunch. That was 2 absences a day. I got a letter from the school telling me she had over 50 absences and if she had one more absence, they would consider filing truancy. Of course I called them to tell them they were nuts, she didn't have any absences, and that's when I found out about the crazy rules. What's even crazier is that if you miss the last 20 minutes of a class, it's not counted as an absence, it's an absence if you miss the first 9 minutes, go figure.

Google "truancy" along with the name of your state and you should find a link to truancy laws for your state.
 
  • #20
ShawnD said:
I thought prudens was a guy...

I know, I was just making a reference to that new movie with the Olsen Twins.
 
  • #21
ShawnD said:
Don't worry, your grades will pull you through. I just hope you don't have any past criminal offenses like stealing or B&E; those will really bring you down.


Great, they've referred me to the Juvenile Court because I didn't attend the meeting. And they told me it would be somewhere around August when the court starts trial...

Now this is bothering me... But I got to study for final exams! And they say they going to ask me why I missed those days... I couldn't even remember! So many things in my mind, finals, AP, sigh.

BTW, i dun have any criminal history.
 
  • #22
I can't believe there are actually school skipping laws in the US. What a total waste of government resources.
 
  • #23
PrudensOptimus said:
Great, they've referred me to the Juvenile Court because I didn't attend the meeting. And they told me it would be somewhere around August when the court starts trial...

Now this is bothering me... But I got to study for final exams! And they say they going to ask me why I missed those days... I couldn't even remember! So many things in my mind, finals, AP, sigh.

BTW, i dun have any criminal history.
Get an attorney Prudens. Did they offer you a court appointed one?
 
  • #24
At my school, if we accrue 11 or more absences in any given class, we're supposed to automatically be dropped. I haven't failed Senior English yet, so...

I think it'd be funny if they failed me for absences. I'd get to raise hell at the next schoolboard meeting.

cookiemonster
 
  • #25
cookiemonster said:
At my school, if we accrue 11 or more absences in any given class, we're supposed to automatically be dropped. I haven't failed Senior English yet, so...

I think it'd be funny if they failed me for absences. I'd get to raise hell at the next schoolboard meeting.

cookiemonster
That happened to me when I was in the ninth grade. Ok, I missed a LOT of school, but I made straight "A's". My math teacher was a witch and told me that just showing up for tests and turning in assignments without attending class made it look like she wasn't teaching anything (gee, you think?). She couldn't fail me because of my grades, so she gave me an "incomplete" based on the number of days I was in attendance & I had to re-take the class in summer school.

That was the last year I had a "normal" school year, I hated school, it was so boring.
 
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  • #26
You should have taken that to the schoolboard. In most places, you can only get an incomplete based on assignments that are not done. If you did all the assignments, you probably would have had a case against that teacher.
 
  • #27
ShawnD said:
You should have taken that to the schoolboard. In most places, you can only get an incomplete based on assignments that are not done. If you did all the assignments, you probably would have had a case against that teacher.
You're probably right, especially since the other teachers all passed me.

In the long run it turned out for the best. My parent's put me in a different school, and long story short, I got jumped way ahead (partly in error, I think) and got out of high school early. :approve:
 
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