Texas truant students to be tracked by GPS anklets

Vegito728 · #1 08-23-2008, 03:43 AM

Texas truant students to be tracked by GPS anklets

Quote:

SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Court authorities here will be able to track students with a history of skipping school under a new program requiring them to wear ankle bracelets with Global Positioning System monitoring.

But at least one group is worried the ankle bracelets will infringe on students' privacy.

Linda Penn, a Bexar County justice of the peace, said she anticipates that about 50 students from four San Antonio-area school districts — likely to be mostly high schoolers — will wear the anklets during the six-month pilot program announced Friday.

She said the time the students wear the anklets will be decided on a case-by-case basis.

"We are at a critical point in our time where we can either educate or incarcerate," Penn said, linking truancy with juvenile delinquency and later criminal activity. "We can teach them now or run the risk of possible incarceration later on in life. I don't want to see the latter."
Penn said students in the program will wear the ankle bracelets full-time and will not be able to remove them.

They'll be selected as they come through her court, and Penn will target truant students with gang affiliations, those with a history of running away and skipping school and those who have been through her court multiple times.

"Students and parents must understand that attending school is not optional," Penn said. "When they fail to attend school, they are breaking the law."

Rest of this Story:
Texas truant students to be tracked by GPS anklets - Yahoo! News

Thoughts?

ysabel · #2 08-23-2008, 04:29 AM

Who here has never skipped a class ever....nor made a bs excuse just to be absent from school?

Quote:

"We are at a critical point in our time where we can either educate or incarcerate," Penn said, linking truancy with juvenile delinquency and later criminal activity. "We can teach them now or run the risk of possible incarceration later on in life. I don't want to see the latter." Penn said students in the program will wear the ankle bracelets full-time and will not be able to remove them.

Wow, they're actually serious.

I guess this type of project does more harm in linking truancy with criminal activity. You're basially treating the kids (who skip class) like serioius criminals and their school as their prison.

Quote:

"Students and parents must understand that attending school is not optional," Penn said. "When they fail to attend school, they are breaking the law."

So if a child skips class, he is breaking the law and then what? Put the child in jail? But then he'll miss more class in doing that, won't he? How does that help in ensuring they get education?

Quote:

"We're all for keeping kids in school, and we applaud any efforts to make that happen," Burke said. "But the privacy issue: What happens with the bracelet or anklet after school is out? Is that appropriate for the school or courts to know where and what this person is doing outside of school?"

Asked why the students have to wear the ankle bracelet all the time instead of just the school day, Penn cited problems with runaways.

"Sometimes, as I said, students are runaways. Parents don't know where they are," Penn said. "So it's for the safety of the child, as well as the safety of the community."

I agree about the privacy issue. This is too much. And the district taking on the responsibility of tracking children's activities just because the parents couldn't...

Blueyes · #3 08-23-2008, 06:53 AM

You know we could probably use that down here. Last year we actually made national news because more than half of the students did not show up for their first day of classes last year. This year, they got cops going out to their houses after getting a list of names of kids that did not show up.

Duke1985 · #4 08-23-2008, 09:30 AM

If this came around when I was in school I probably would have dropped out, hands down.
This is going to generate nothing but resentment for education.
I see this as a massive invasion of privacy and all around just the wrong way to go about keeping kids in school.

Seriously, I'd keep an eye on the drop out rate in this district, something tells me its going to shoot up.

micfranklin · #5 08-23-2008, 01:22 PM

Nothing good comes of forcing people to do anything and trying to treat students as convicts is way beyond the proper way to educate people.

Once again another "brilliant" use of taxpayer money

Constantine · #6 08-26-2008, 06:33 AM

Instead of trying to "incarcerate" students in their own schools, they should be putting money into the study and solutions as to why these kids are skipping in the first place.

micfranklin · #7 08-26-2008, 10:26 AM

Or we could just let them run off on their own, it's clear they don't wanna be in school in the first place so why waste your time forcing them to stay?

Nightsurfer · #8 08-26-2008, 10:33 AM

Now this has to be the dumbest idea I have ever seen in a while. There has to be something better than doing that to kids. hell i can disable a GPS with tin foil or a strip of led cut to size to fit the anklet.

What a waste of tax payer money.

Hell back when I was in school they had truancy officers that rode around looking for kids who ditched school, hell they would even come to your door to see if you were realy sick or just faking it.

There is no need for the GPS tracking of students who don't want to be there.

micfranklin · #9 08-26-2008, 10:46 AM

Why not take the kids to jail or juvenile hall for a day and give them a little insight on what might happen to them. At least that way they won't be forced into school.

SuiGeneris · #10 08-26-2008, 12:30 PM

Just remember: big brother is watching.

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