Detroit proposes to jail parents who miss parent teacher conferences

I didn't post in breaking news because its more political madness than breaking news.

Missed meetings could mean jail time for parents

The night Demarco Harris shot and killed a woman during a robbery on a Detroit street, his parents told police knocking on their door at 2 a.m. they didn't know where their 12-year-old was.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said that's indicative of a larger issue in Detroit, where the lack of making parents accountable for their children partly is blamed on elevated truancy and dropout rates, as well as a recent rash of violent crimes involving teens.

Worthy has a new idea she hopes will fix the problem: Jail parents for up to three days for repeatedly missing scheduled parent-teacher conferences.

I think thats pretty damn appalling. I'm all for getting more parents involved in their kids lives, but this the wrong way of going about it.

I'm a product of a single parent home, my mother worked nights. I don't know her reasons for working nights. I cannot recall one time in my life my mother going to a parent teacher confererence. She did, with her limited education try her best to help me with school, ask questions about friends and goings on in my life etc...

But, had this law been enacted while I was a child, it would have only served to further the strain my small family was under. As it was there was plenty of hard times to be had, scraping by to pay bills, pay for food, pay for clothes and the occassional toy, present, or bicycle.

Most jobs don't care if your kids parent teacher conference is today, I've seen employers not allow someone to leave or miss work when people were in the hospital.

Missing even one day of work for a parent teacher conference would have taken a nice toll on my family for the month, and could have meant the difference in paying a water bill, or eating enough for the week.

Then to not miss it, and be sentenced to jail, or community service would do a greater misdeed in harming a family, especially in a single parent household. If a parent is sentenced to jail, even if only 3 days where does the child go? I'm sure it opens the door of your child being in "the system", a system thats very hard to get out of. How do you make up for 3 days of missed pay, especially in this economy, missing 3 days of work not only would probably get you fired, but would damage your families budget.

Maybe its just an opinionated rant, but I think this is the absolute worst way to try to get parents more involved with their children's schooling and lives.

Making it illegal, to miss an optional conference is stupidity, even making the conferences mandatory would be stupid, much less putting you in jail for it.

[edit on 7/6/2010 by ThaLoccster]

The root of the problem lies with publicly funded schooling.

The proposal that parents be imprisoned for missing parent teacher conferences is typical of left wingers.

There is no problem a government gun can't solve.

reply to post by ThaLoccster


Teachers have off two months in the Summer... and, in the case of our crazy school schedules here, several times in the year they are off for at least a week or more at a time... I think the teacher should have to schedule to go meet with the parent...

This story is rediculous! I agree that parents needs to be involved in our childrens lives, but here this person goes trying to right all wrongs of a few lousy parents but placing an unnecessary burden on everyone else.

Originally posted by 1curious1
but here this person goes trying to right all wrongs of a few lousy parents but placing an unnecessary burden on everyone else.

You could sum up all of left wing ideology with that statement.

Literally.

The catalyst for this bill is a 12 year old boy who murdered someone.

When the police went to his parents house at 2 am, they didn't have any idea where the child was.

So here's my proposal, jail parents who don't know where their children are at 2am. Not parents who miss a parent teacher conference.

If the parent was more involved in other aspects of the kids life, parent teacher conferences wouldn't even be an issue.

Just wait till they start teaching pro-government propoganda in our school.

First it is parent/teacher conferences. Then if you don't have your child in school learning how the global government should provide for your every need, you will face jail time.

reply to post by ThaLoccster


How about we jail the kid instead or place him in a home with parents that give a crap.

Now I'm sure that the parents are welfare sucking degenerates that have no jobs, don't want a job, and live entirely off of my tax dollars.

This is important, because normally what would happen is that the people who were harmed by the kids actions would sue the parents in civil court for damages.

If they had something to lose, they might give a crap about what their kid was doing because they wouldn't want a lawsuit on their hands.

Of course, since they are welfare degenerates, the only thing they have to lose is my tax dollars.

The free market takes care of all these problems when it is allowed to work correctly.

The government creates moral hazard by subsidizing peoples lifestyles.

Hooly Dooly, where do I start.

I don’t like people let alone Teachers. I went to a parent teacher interviews a few times. I stopped going years ago. I loathe the school system .
I loathe the teachers stuck up attitudes and I loathe how some idiots with less morals than Hitler are allowed to even talk to our children let alone educate them.

So it looks like I would be going to jail, apparently because I’m neglecting my children.

So my children would be without care, due to me being in jail and then I'm assuming my neglected children would then be handed over to the state so they can be well taken care of... at least while sitting in my jail cell my mind will feel at ease knowing that the state and education department will take better care of my children than I was.

Originally posted by ThaLoccster
Worthy has a new idea she hopes will fix the problem: Jail parents for up to three days for repeatedly missing scheduled parent-teacher conferences.

Seriously, people like this Worthy character, need to be stopped, by all means necessary. And i mean ALL MEANS. That's right. At the very least, this is pure evil. With people, and no doubt in Detroit especially, struggling to pay their bills and survive, and then being threatened with PRISON, albeit a short time but still, i was in jail as a teenager for 2 days, and i can tell you, IT is no picnic. But for this? Even suggesting something like this, should have her fired and never hired for any public service position again, EVER. Personally i'd like to see people like this, rot in prison forever, for even suggesting such an idea.

Oh well, i can dream right.

Originally posted by mnemeth1

The free market takes care of all these problems when it is allowed to work correctly.

The government creates moral hazard by subsidizing peoples lifestyles.

Man, you said it all right there. Too many people buy into this nonsense that the govt will save them, help them, cares about them, serves them etc. They don't care about anything, in fact, i believe most of them to be TYRANTS.

Man, most people will never wake up, that's what really frustrates me the most.

Originally posted by mnemeth1
There is no problem a government gun can't solve.

hmmmm
I thought it went more like

there's no government problem a gun can't solve.

I know people who teach in dodgy areas like Detroit. If they were going to arrest every parent that missed a parent-teacher conference, they would have to arrest 75% of the women in town. (Let's not even get started on the fathers!)

We all agree that in the ideal world, all parents would care deeply about their children's education. However, in the real world, especially in bad parts of the country like Detroit, many parents simply do not care about their child's education. We are probably better off letting these parents keep themselves out of the loop than forcing them to attend conferences where they will disrupt teachers and other parents who actually care about their children.

I see this personally as very reasonable, unless the parent has a legitimate excuse for missing it and attepmts to reschedule. Did you know that the average graduation rate for DPS is around 24-27%?

Parents, espically there, need to become more involved with their kids' acidemic success.

Originally posted by Doubleagent
I see this personally as very reasonable, unless the parent has a legitimate excuse for missing it and attepmts to reschedule. Did you know that the average graduation rate for DPS is around 24-27%?

Parents, espically there, need to become more involved with their kids' acidemic success.

For some reason liberals always see violence as reasonable.

It's reasonable to loot the rich.

It's reasonable to loot the middle class.

It's reasonable for the government to confiscate your property if they feel they need it more than you do.

It's reasonable to force others to pay for your medical care.

It's reasonable to force others to pay for your kids schooling.

It's reasonable to force others to pay for your housing.

All manner of force seems reasonable.



When will you learn.

Violence is not the solution.


[edit on 6-7-2010 by mnemeth1]

reply to post by mnemeth1


I wasn't exactly being literal with my statement.

I think in the end it should be taken in context. Broad brush strokes of law generally net people it otherwise shouldn't.

Plenty of times a parent is involved in their childs lifes, activities etc but at 2 am they still sneak out the window. Holding a parent accountable for that is foolish and it should be the child that's held accountable.

In that same vein, plenty of times there are parents who are out partying, or at home partying, messing off, paying no attention to what their kids do while they run the streets. Both should be held accountable in that instance.

Plenty of times I was caught out, only to have them threaten my mother who was doing everything short of chaining me to the bed to make sure I didn't do things like that. When they should have been putting some fear in my ass, not hers.

I see no problem with publicly funded schooling - it is an essential service, the same as law enforcement, fire dept, and (where Im from_ medical care.

You cannot punish parents, the surrounding culture is as much to blame or more so, than the parents themselves.

They could be the best parents in the world, but if their children are surrounded by drugs, thugs and crime - they dont have much chance.

The answer is to try to improve the culture - poverty contributes, as does social dislocation.

It is difficult to see the right way to bring improvement to these places - but jailing parents isnt the answer.

[edit on 7-7-2010 by Amagnon]

reply to post by Amagnon


But you would have me jailed if I didn't pay for your kids education.

Good logic.