Kids Who Skip School Get Tracked By GPS

suraj.sun writes with this excerpt from the Orange County Register: "Frustrated by students habitually skipping class, police and the Anaheim Union High School District are turning to GPS tracking to ensure they come to class. The six-week pilot program is the first in California to test GPS. Seventh- and eighth-graders with four unexcused absences or more this school year are assigned to carry a handheld GPS device, about the size of a cell phone. Five times a day, they are required to enter a code that tracks their locations – as they leave for school, when they arrive at school, at lunchtime, when they leave school and at 8 p.m."

GPS isn't a solution

[sheehaje]

Maybe instead of treating students like cattle, schools should become more interesting and figure out why kids are actually skipping school.

I did all the time, until I was old enough to drop out, get a GED and head to college. I never missed classes in College because I was able to determine for myself what interested me and what goals I wanted to achieve.

This was because I had moved into a new school district that didn't really evaluate my needs, and instead stuck be in classes that were beneath the level of work I was doing in my previous school. I went from doing algebra and trigonometry to doing long division.

I'm sure that's not why all students skip school. I sure some are getting bullied, some are on drugs, and others are overwhelmed with their homework. Whatever the case, GPS won't solve the problems.

Re:Big Brother

[WrongSizeGlass]

Threatening someone with jail time or fines if they don't volunteer is like saying there is a mandatory donation required to attend a free event.

They're not picking random kids off the street for this. These kids are already facing juvenile hall. They a had a choice: go to school or get in trouble. Now they have another choice: go to school and be tracked or go to juvenile hall. These kids already made the first choice so now they (and their parents) are forced to make the second choice.

I'm not thrilled with the program - I think they should just lock the kids up in reform school/juvenile hall/whatever. They have free will and they made their choice so let them live with the consequences. Maybe they'll learn from their mistakes, or maybe not.

Re:Great plan there

[glazener]

This may well be related to a funding issue. In my state, schools receive money based on the average daily attendance, not the actual enrollment. In any case, it seems that having a draconian excused absence policy only serves to teach both parents and kids to lie effectively. My son's high school had a fairly strict excused absence policy. When one of his friends was killed in an automobile accident the school told us that if he missed school to attend the funeral, the absence would have been unexcused. I had no problem at all telling the school that he was absent due to a scheduled doctors appointment. Had the school asked for proof that he had actually seen the doctor I would have had no problem mocking of the letter on official looking stationary stating that he had been seen on that day and scrawling a doctors name at the bottom. Even if the school were inclined to verify the excuse with the doctor, medical privacy laws in general prohibit medical practitioners from disclosing information about the patient so the risk of detection would be minimal. Even if we were found out, there were essentially no negative consequences to lying to the school. There were a couple of other instances when I felt it was reasonable and proper to keep my child out of school but the school would have defined the reason as an unexcused absence. I felt no obligation to be honest with the school under the circumstances. In some ways I guess that the schools are teaching a valuable lesson. Sometimes it's just best to tell the convenient lie rather than the truth. Honesty is not always the best policy.

Re:Great plan there

[Anonymous Coward]

And we all know that playing fantasy games in school makes you a felonious terrorist... [toothpicks.org]