Southside Middle School in Indiana decided to charge one father and two mothers with felonies for their children's excessive absences from school. Heated debate rages on among the country on whether it is fair and effective to have the parents of truants charged with a felony.
According to a report from The Star Press, Delaware County chief deputy prosecutor Judi Calhoun charged the parents with level 6 felonies which can result in a sentence of up to two and a half years for each parent. The parents of the truants were identified in the report as 48-year-old Tommy R. Langham Jr., 52-year-old Roberta J. Williamson, and 33-year-old Misty Ann Wilson.
Calhoun clarified to The Star Press that the parents will not be arrested because it might give further cause for the children not to appear in school anymore. However, the charged parents will be set to appear in court. The prosecutor also believes that more parents will be charged by other schools for truant children but admits it will be difficult to prove the parents' guilt and responsibility for their children's school absences.
Debates have become heated about the merits of charging the parents of truants with felonies. As Yahoo Parenting pointed out in a story from New Republic, "Absence from school is an undeniable problem. We know it is correlated with lower grades, with dropping out of high school, and with trouble with the law. What is less certain is if treating truancy as a crime addresses these underlying issues in an effective and reasonable way."
The New Republic article also points out that having the parents of truants charged with a felony has not been proven to improve children's behaviour and school attendance, but could actually further turn them off from going to school and lead to poverty in the future.
