They're just kids

[acealive1]

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." :lol::lol: they're saying this because they needed students to attend so they get money from the state.

Penn said the electronic monitoring is part of a comprehensive program she started four years ago to reduce truancy. She cited programs in Midland and Dallas as having success with similar electronic monitoring measures.

But Terri Burke, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, said requiring students to wear the GPS bracelets full-time raises privacy concerns.

"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."

Burke said truant students and runaway kids are different issues.

Asked specifically about privacy concerns, Penn said she didn't have a comment. But, she added, her priority is "looking for the good of making these children accountable ... it's for the concern of these children getting an education."

[SRP76]

F*ck it. Just kill school skippers. Save me the expense of supporting their welfare-and-food-stamp having asses in their adult lives.

[MikePizzoff]

F*ck it. Just kill school skippers. Save me the expense of supporting their welfare-and-food-stamp having asses in their adult lives.

.................................................. .....................uhhhhhhhh....

[SymphonicX]

There's a decided lack of education in today's society. I say screw the kids, get the parents back to school and teach them how to be proper HUMAN BEINGS

[Tricky]

Too damn right they should be at school to learn! Over here in the UK you wouldnt believe how completely illiterate most of the kids leaving school are, they only seem to know how to write in "text speak", & bad spelling really gets on my bod end,especially when its words that arent even difficult to spell!:mad:

[Bub666]

This sounds kind of stupid.Every kid skips school at least once in their lives.It's going to cost the taxpayers millions of dollors for these ankle bracelets.

[slickwilly13]

I never skipped public school. Now college, diffrent story. *L* This is just for those losers who continueously ditch class. But then again, these students will probably never amount to anything and become failures at life.

[acealive1]

I never skipped public school. Now college, diffrent story. *L* This is just for those losers who continueously ditch class. But then again, these students will probably never amount to anything and become failures at life.


eminem dropped out............now look at him........almost a billionaire

[slickwilly13]

If it wasn't for his music. He would still be flipping burgers. *L* But your average drop out will not amount to anything. In rare ooccasions, some succeed.

[acealive1]

If it wasn't for his music. He would still be flipping burgers. *L* But your average drop out will not amount to anything. In rare ooccasions, some succeed.


um..thats how it is with everyone. we all have something that makes us unique.

and umm no he'd have made it somehow. movie career. $140 million dollars worth of box office receipts

[strayrider]

F*ck it. Just kill school skippers. Save me the expense of supporting their welfare-and-food-stamp having asses in their adult lives.

Don't kill them. Pull them out of public school and put them to work weeding peas somewhere ... along with their welfare-and-food stamp receiving parent (after cutting off welfare benefits).

:D

-stray-

[bassman]

That's a bit extreme. I skipped school alot. Especially when I was driving. I skipped yet still passed every class and graduated. It's all how you handle it.

What they need to be worried about is not allowing kids the option to drop out at 16. Make them stay until it's done....

[MikePizzoff]

Um, hey, ARSEHOLES, I skipped high school incessantly throughout my years. Some classes I rarely ever even went to.

I'm not on welfare, I'm not unemployed... in fact I work full-time AND I'm a full-time college student.

But, maybe I should of just been killed because I cut class.

Why isn't there an emoticon that gives the finger?

[strayrider]

Um, hey, ARSEHOLES, I skipped high school incessantly throughout my years. Some classes I rarely ever even went to.

I'm not on welfare, I'm not unemployed... in fact I work full-time AND I'm a full-time college student.

But, maybe I should of just been killed because I cut class.

Why isn't there an emoticon that gives the finger?

Mike, son, no one is talking about YOU here. Why the hostility and name calling?

:D

-stray-

[slickwilly13]

Just for the record, so there is no misunderstandings. I am talking about the thugs of San Antonio. Anyone on this forum ever been there?

[SymphonicX]

Trouble is, yet again, lumping in every single apple on the tree with the bad ones. I skipped school a lot.

Dudes, I walked out of classes in front of the teachers. I told them to "control their ****ing class or I'm not bothering"...and walked out....people were making missiles out of drawing pins and launching them at people's faces with elastic bands.

I used to just walk out after the last assembly, casually strolling out of the main gates whilst teachers would watch me. No one said a word.

Still, I feel I'm quite successful, I could always have more money but my career is going really well, I own my own house, car, etc etc...so really its not so much how much you go to school but how you approach life in general, which can't be taught to anyone - except from the ****ing PARENTS.

(ironic...I got my drive from my parents simply because they are ****ing nutcases and I wanted to get away from them...reverse psychology or something)

[MinionZombie]

Dudes, I walked out of classes in front of the teachers. I told them to "control their ****ing class or I'm not bothering"...and walked out....people were making missiles out of drawing pins and launching them at people's faces with elastic bands.

Well played Sir, I'm glad I was never in a class that rowdy. Unfortunately, teachers have been neutered in their powers to control students, which is absolutely preposterous. I hope they get the power back soon to sort out the trouble makers.

I've never skipped school, like gone off to school but never walked through the gates.

I walked out of an art class early in Sixth Form when I was all pissed off about something, one of the other students pissing me off, and then I didn't attend the next one cos I was still pissed off ... I was all over the place up in me noggin' in the Sixth Form though.

I came up with a million-and-one excuses not to take part in PE class in Year 11 though, cos it was utter sh*te. Year 10 was generally awesome as I got to play Badminton all year round practically, and I really enjoyed playing that, whilst all the thugs and bullies and jocks were on the field getting muddy, exerting their latent homosexuality that they publicly shunned.

So yeah, Year 11 was an endless procession of sore knees, sprained ankles, stomach upsets and anything I could think of, even had my mum writing notes for me, but then again she was totally on my side regarding the rubbishness of high school sports education.

Fortunately, despite some downsides, my high school experience was generally positive. But there were sh*tty times, but I think the school being pretty decent helped, with a good helping of good teachers (although some were f*cking useless, there's always gonna be some isn't there)?

Anyway ... on topic though, criminalising it is ridiculous.

I'm still in favour of being able to leave at 16, in fact I'd be in favour of leaving at 15 as there's always going to be the sorts of students who simply DON'T want to be there, and DON'T want to do their GCSEs, and just play truant on the exam days anyway. I knew such people - they'd have been much better leaving at 15 to get out there and train up for a practical profession - something which would have been good to have in the technology classes ... never mind spending three months making a plastic-boxed buzzer that doesn't work. :rolleyes:

[Mike70]

fu*k high school. frigging waste of time and effort for the most part. if you think a person gets an "education" there, you've probably been smoking draino. real education happens in college. high school is just one of those flaming hoops society makes kids jump through.

most of the kids i taught in college would've been lucky to be able to write in complete sentences let alone in paragraphs. so yeah, i'm a bit salty about high school and the bullsh*t that goes along with it.

[slickwilly13]

fu*k high school. frigging waste of time and effort for the most part. if you think a person gets an "education" there, you've probably been smoking draino. real education happens in college. high school is just one of those flaming hoops society makes kids jump through.

most of the kids i taught in college would've been lucky to be able to write in complete sentences let alone in paragraphs. so yeah, i'm a bit salty about high school and the bullsh*t that goes along with it.

You're right. High school failed in its part to prepare me for college. All they cared about was getting us out. Only the rich families received special treatment at my school. I had the grades for A.P. classes, but for reasons unknown was denied entry. I went to college with limited math, writing, and studying skills. A lot of people, including honor students struggled. I had to re-educate myself and got through it. But without that high school diploma and ACT scores, I would not been able to go to college.

[acealive1]

i like how these old farts make all theese rules and pre requisites for high school kids and they had to go through none of the things they're implementing

[Kaos]

eminem dropped out............now look at him........almost a billionaire

Psssst, arguing from the exception does not make a good argument. For every one eminem there are hundreds of thousands of high school drop outs either looking for handouts, on welfare, or working as low paid non-skilled labor.


Um, hey, ARSEHOLES, I skipped high school incessantly throughout my years. Some classes I rarely ever even went to.

I'm not on welfare, I'm not unemployed... in fact I work full-time AND I'm a full-time college student.

But, maybe I should of just been killed because I cut class.

Why isn't there an emoticon that gives the finger?

Did you get a diploma or GED? If you did you are in a much better position than a dropout. I think what people are saying is that students who attend classes will statistically do better than those who don't. Are there exceptions? Sure, some chronic class skippers/drop outs will do well, but most will not. I think the class skipper that graduates is in a much better position than the drop out though. High school dropouts without GED's have a much rougher time with regard to income statistically. High school diploma's and GED are the hoop that has to be jumped to get into the majority of colleges out there

Here is income data by education level.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0883617.html

[slickwilly13]

I have decided to pursue a Masters degree in business after I get my B.S.. I was doing some research while recovering from surgery. I figured if I get my B.S. in GBA in about a year from now. Then I could attend college part time and complete my 2nd minor in management, while working. After the minor is complete, I can still work full time, while going to school 6-9 hrs a semester, until my Masters is completed. I figured by the time the Masters is done I will have adequate amount of work experience. Sound like a good plan?

Btw, I will be knocking out 2 classes for each summer. And I am considering learning another language. Maybe Spanish.

[Chic Freak]

If they can only work when they are being tracked, what's the point? Are they going to need another ankle bracelet at university, and another one again to stop them skiving off work?

It would make more sense to educate people more about education and try and disspell the "but I'm never going to need to know how to do trigonometry in the 'real world' so what's the point?" attitude. Teaching people the harsh reality that you do need a piece of paper with some sort of qualification on to do more or less any well-paying job or apprenticeship/ trade course these days would be useful.

Like many of my friends I also skipped classes a reasonable amount during high school, but this did not prevent me from getting good grades because I understood why I needed them. It is my parents who explained why I needed them though, not the school, who generally just had a more vaguely threatening "do it or else" approach that many people naturally rebelled against by doing nothing.

[MinionZombie]

fu*k high school. frigging waste of time and effort for the most part. if you think a person gets an "education" there, you've probably been smoking draino. real education happens in college. high school is just one of those flaming hoops society makes kids jump through.

most of the kids i taught in college would've been lucky to be able to write in complete sentences let alone in paragraphs. so yeah, i'm a bit salty about high school and the bullsh*t that goes along with it.
Aye I know what you're saying man.

After primary school - the foundation of your entire education - high school is just a case of Key Stage 3 being prep for GCSE, and GCSE is a prep for Sixth Form, which in turn is a prep for University.

With each step up, I felt like my time was being best used more and more, but there was a much bigger step up from GCSE to Sixth Form (A-Level). I think part of it was being on par more with the teachers, you were a bit more even with them, you weren't just students getting ploughed through, but people who'd stayed on and chose their course (at least when I was doing A-Level, now Labour has turned it into yet another factory line and cheapened the entire qualification).

Then again with University, not only is it a huge step up in general - you're away from home for the first time, living on your own, figuring out how to cook bacon without burning it to a crisp and getting boiling grease spattered all over your hands and arms - but again there's more of an affiinity, for lack of a better word, between you and the lecturer ... I mean heck, you can actually go to the SU Bar with your teachers and have a pint.

Then you get to set your own essays (within parameters of course), and classes are generally freer, and are guided by discussion amongst the group, rather than one-way teaching.

I found myself really learning, retaining and developing a lot more explicitly during my time at university, and in the three years since graduating, I've continued to feel that development.

Meanwhile I've basically forgotten 90% of everything I learned at GCSE and forgotten a good 60 or 70 percent of what I learned at A-Level. This in itself comes down to styles and methods of teaching at the various levels from GCSE to Degree. Since the late 90's it's become hugely focussed on cramming for tests, rather than learning for life - and those from my age range down have all suffered from it to an ever-increasing degree.

Meanwhile - A-Level is a bit less like that, and University is not like that at all. Hence the improvement in quality of education the further up you go - but that by no means translates into Labour's 'great idea' of 50% of people getting a degree, that IS the most retarded idea I've ever heard.

[DjfunkmasterG]

Well I will add my 2 cents.

In 7th grade out of a 186 day school year I attended 87 days, passed with a 3.5 GPA, 8th grade, I missed 84 days, passed with a 3.7 GPA, 9th, I only took off 61 days and left with a 3.6, 10th missed 97 days left with a 3.6, 11th missed 105 days and walked into my senior year with a 3.6 again and when I graduated HS, I left with a 3.5 and I missed 112 days of a 190 day school year.

I hold one bachelors degree, almost finished with a second. My current GPA is 3.9. I skipped school because I was bored to death. The teachers were not teaching at a pace fast enough for me. I had read the 10th grade Social Studies/history book in two weeks, I pretty much only showed up for the tests in that class.

Science, I attended the most out of any class, mainly because we got to play with Acids, and build things that would most likely blow up, so I enjoyed being a part of that learning environment. I aced my Computer Lab classes, Health, well, although I passed I receive a failing grade in life because I sure as hell didn't practice what was preached.

English, I always struggled with simply because of when to use a comma or proper punctuation, but as life goes on I keep on checking with it as I do my courses in college for Bachelors #2.

[MikePizzoff]

I agree with you guys. Very few teachers actually taught me anything in high school. Actually, I can only think back on 3 teachers that taught me anything that I can still remember (or even remembered straight outta high school, to be honest).

High School is just something you HAVE to do if you want to be a "normal" part of society.

I kind of feel college is the same way. What business' care most about is that piece of paper, known as a degree. My major is communications, and when I graduate and go to get a job in radio, television, or film I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be asked to disclose my knowledge of religious music in Western Civilization during the 1400's or how to solve a quadratic algebraic equation or how to diagnose someone with schizophrenia using only a few symptoms.

[Doc]

In 7th grade out of a 186 day school year I attended 87 days, passed with a 3.5 GPA, 8th grade, I missed 84 days, passed with a 3.7 GPA, 9th, I only took off 61 days and left with a 3.6, 10th missed 97 days left with a 3.6, 11th missed 105 days and walked into my senior year with a 3.6 again and when I graduated HS, I left with a 3.5 and I missed 112 days of a 190 day school year.



Dang.:stunned: You being serious? In my school if your absent for 5 days you fail the semester.

[slickwilly13]

Dang.:stunned: You being serious? In my school if your absent for 5 days you fail the semester.


No sh!t. At my jr high, if you missed 2 - 2 1/2 weeks, then you failed. It didn't matter what your grades were.

[Bub666]

Dang.:stunned: You being serious? In my school if your absent for 5 days you fail the semester.

Same in my school.

[Kaos]

Well I will add my 2 cents.

In 7th grade out of a 186 day school year I attended 87 days, passed with a 3.5 GPA, 8th grade, I missed 84 days, passed with a 3.7 GPA, 9th, I only took off 61 days and left with a 3.6, 10th missed 97 days left with a 3.6, 11th missed 105 days and walked into my senior year with a 3.6 again and when I graduated HS, I left with a 3.5 and I missed 112 days of a 190 day school year.


Again, arguing from the exception is not a real debate winning strategy.
When one tells of merely his own experience it doesn't reflect the trends cast by thousands of other people who couldn't grasp what you obviously did when you didn't go to school. It may even encourage many who could very well benefit from going to school from doing so thereby guaranteeing the very real impact that a lack of education offers.

When I hear stories about how high school was so effortless I breezed through it without trying , I am wondering why they are doing it? I mean it is like :annoyed:. They can't be so certain that what worked for them is the model by which others should follow, could they? Could they believe that whatever failings they had in their school really applies to all schools? Could they be denying the possibility (as low as it is in DJ's place) that they actually may have made college easier by paying attention more in high school? Maybe. Maybe not. It is all situational to the person, true...

...but as a person whose job it is to go over numbers and statistics for higher education, students who are committed and successful students in high school on average perform better, and go farther in education than those who don't. And those who get more education typically make significantly more in their lifetimes than than those with less. Irrespective of anyone here's personal opinion or experience regarding the matter, this is the reality. Are there exceptions? Most certainly but they are much fewer than some folks would feel comfortable acknowledging. I won't even go into the extra burden it is for the working adult student in higher ed as opposed to the "traditional" college student directly after high school.

Telling stories about sports stars that made it big, or entertainers that made it big, or Bill Gates who dropped out of college made it big, or "I" made it big...These are really a bunch of very real and relatively rare (as far as using the entire population of the U.S. goes)stories that we tell each other to make it OK if we don't work hard to learn as much as we can.

I am doing great myself. I should get off my ass and go to Grad school like DJ even though I make more than most Phd's at my university. I make more than the average lawyer. Would I recommend such academic sloth in my daughter? - no friggin way!!! I beat the odds, using my wits just like DJ, but I recognize that I am lucky as all f*ck. I have a distinct aptitude for the work I am doing. I got molded by the right mentors, by pure luck I was given opportunities to prove myself. Who knows if she is going to get the splendid breaks I got. Education is the mitigator here. It is a way of hedging your bets, and these odds are way better than Vegas.

Sorry if my rant seemed to be about DJ, it wasn't. Having met and hung out with Gary several times, I am in no way surprised at the story he is telling. I just wanted to add a little caution to his tale since others may think that is "the easy" or best way to success.

Man, I need a life.:lol:

[Yojimbo]

Dang.:stunned: You being serious? In my school if your absent for 5 days you fail the semester.

The reason that they institute policies like this are not always for the benefit of the student, or to make sure that the student is learning, per se, since like DJ, many students find the level of education offered at the public school level to be full of it and are actually better off studying on their own. In the Los Angeles Unified School District, a teacher once informed me that the school receives a fee from the government per student for every day that the student attends school. This means that if you ditch and are not present for roll call, the school does not get whatever daily pittance it gets from the state for having a student at school for that particular day.

Interestingly, I was actually told back in the day by a sympathetic teacher that if I wanted to ditch and not have the administration come crashing down on my ass that I should at least attend homeroom every day, regardless of whether or not I went to class, since it was in homeroom where the official tally of attendance for the day was taken.

So, to recap, your school's policy about absences has nothing to do with education and everything to do with funding.

While I have a lot of respect for those folks who go into teaching (and what a thankless profession that can be!) I do suspect that the teachers union, at least here in Los Angeles, is also motivated less by the educational welfare of it's students and more by salary increases and increases in individual teacher's benefits. If they cared about teaching, they would not stage the regular walkouts and strikes that they seem to do everytime they have a union grievance, leaving the students without their daily dose of education.

But on the subject of whether or not you should attend class, I don't believe that anyone should think that ditching class is an acceptable option. Like DJ, I was able to ditch the majority of my classes and still earn a 3.5 (not the best GPA, I will admit) for graduation since I was studying rather than going to classes. I was not spending all of my time partying or being stupid, which many kids who ditch are off doing. Realistically, if I could go back and do it all again, I feel that it would have been easier for me had I stayed with the program, since ditching gave me some bad habits of thinking of myself above the law that others had to follow, and made it all the more difficult to fall into place when I made my way into the university system. Once there, I must tell you, it took me a semester of hitting bottom and going on Academic Probation to realize that ditching high school and neglecting to attend my lectures in college were two different matters.

[darth los]

Why isn't there an emoticon that gives the finger?

Because it would be used to the point of naseum !!

There's one in the chatroom, atleast there used to be.