School truancy shouldn't be a criminal issue

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1 HOUSTON School truancy shouldn't be a criminal issue By Patricia Kilday Hart 4:42 AM 1/6

2 6/23/13 School truancy shouldn't be a criminal issue - Houston Chronicle Harry Cabluck, STF Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, who chairs the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, speaks to members of his committee Tuesday, March 13, 2007, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Harry Cabluck) Houston criminal defense attorney Rhonda Chargois got a frantic call in February from a Wheatley High School student she was mentoring. "Come to the school immediately," Kennedy Stanley pleaded. "They are kicking us out." Chargois arrived just in time to hear an assistant principal tell 46 seniors and juniors - who had been 2/6

3 summoned from class to the school library - that they were now "considered dropouts." The school official then ordered the students to sign withdrawal forms and informed them they would not be allowed back on campus. If they returned, they were told, they would be charged with trespassing, Chargois recalled. The Houston Independent School District high school was taking advantage of a state law that permits the dismissal of students older than 18 who have more than five unexcused absences. But Chargois said many of the students had good explanations for their absences as well as for why they hadn't properly accounted for them. And no one told the students they could appeal the dismissal if they truly wanted to graduate, she said. Chargois protested the action, helped students re-enroll, and took comfort that Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, helped pass legislation that would prevent schools from kicking out students while they were attending class. This week, she was stunned to learn that Gov. Rick Perry had vetoed the legislation. "That is horrible." Whitmire agreed: "They vetoed a very good effective bill." Ironically, the veto occurred days after a complaint was lodged with the Department of Justice over how Dallas County deals with truancy cases. According to the complaint by Texas Appleseed, Disability Rights Texas and the National Center for Youth Law, some students as young as 12 were prosecuted as adults, often without benefit of legal counsel. Truancy cases Truancy charges often result in large fines, jail time and a criminal record, according to Texas Appleseed. The group also said that Texas adult courts pursued about 113,000 truancy cases against Texas children ages 12 to 17 in 2012, more than double the number of truancy cases prosecuted the other 49 states combined. Whitmire cited "horror stories" about truancy enforcement in Texas. In Baytown, a student was attending algebra class when officers came to arrest him for failing to appear in court - on truancy charges. All over Texas, students have been taken into custody - while attending school - for failing to appear in court on truancy charges or failure to pay hefty fines for skipping school, Whitmire discovered. "If your stated purpose is to improve classroom attendance, why are you taking them out of class?" said the frustrated lawmaker. 3/6

4 Chargois recalled asking herself the same question as she watched events unfold at Wheatley. "I couldn't believe they were calling these students dropouts when they were pushing them out," she said. She says she knows five of the 46 students, including one girl who was homeless. When she was absent from school, she had no guardian to write her a note, and school officials wouldn't accept her own. Another girl had just been released from a psychiatric facility, and her absence had been counted as unexcused. Mother had a stroke Chargois' efforts paid off: "I just went to the Wheatley graduation and saw several of these students graduate," she said. Stanley was among them. Since her mother had a stroke, she's been living with a friend, and getting to school became difficult. But she had no one to write official excuses for her, she said this week. After Chargois helped her re-enroll, Stanley said she doubled down on her efforts to improve her attendance. "I'm proud of myself," she said of her graduation. She plans to attend San Jacinto Junior College and become a pharmacist. Chargois acknowledged that the students had poor attendance records, but said many had parents who were "low functioning" or incarcerated. "They don't have a lot of advocates," she said. As a criminal defense attorney, she also knows what will happen to the students if school officials simply give up. "I see what happens when you don't deal with it," she said Orlando Riddick, who oversees HISD's school improvement officers, said Wheatley administrators had pursued normal truancy enforcement protocol - sending warnings home to parents and calling home. But he agreed with Chargois that those strategies don't always work. School administrators "have to know their students," he said. The Wheatley mass dismissal isn't "something I would want to happen again," Riddick said. "It's not a practice we would want to have, where you round up 45 students and say, 'Here's the door.' " Dave Edgerson, Wheatley's principal this past year, couldn't be reached for comment, and Riddick confirmed that he is no longer with the district. 4/6

5 Riddick said Edger son's departure was "a decision he made," but acknowledged that the controversy over the mass dismissals contributed to it. In a letter to Riddick and Whitmire in February, Edgerson pointed out that school funding is tied to student attendance and that the school had lost more than $760,000. "That loss represents valuable resources that could be used in the hiring of teachers and other personnel, or the purchasing of much-needed supplies and materials,'' Edgerson wrote. "As the manager of the fiscal operation of the campus, I could not afford to continue to carry students who just would not attend school," he wrote. But he promised to try to get all of the dismissed students back in school: "To date, of the 46 students, only nine remain un-enrolled in school. Those students happen to be the most difficult cases that just were not attending school. But we won't stop there. Our goal is to capture each one of those students and ensure he or she is enrolled in a bona-fide educational program accredited by the state of Texas." Rehabilitate students HISD took extraordinary measures to rehabilitate the students, assigning them to special classes and holding a spring break camp to allow students to make up for lost class time. Even though school officials attempted home visits, nine students could not be located. Whitmire's truancy bill would have required case managers to work with schools and truant students to determine whether socio-economic factors are affecting attendance. Often, class time can be adapted to allow for work schedules, and students can get assistance with other needs, like transportation. Whitmire cited the example of a 14-year-old girl charged with truancy who, it turned out, quit coming to school when she became pregnant and had no maternity clothes. "The reason she's not in school is she needs help with her pregnancy," said Whitmire. "It's an education issue, not a criminal justice issue." 2013 Hearst Communications Inc. 5/6

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