Skippin’ School Teens Argue Validity Of Truancy Center

ANTI By Reed Jackson/North Central

Recently, Spokane’s schools and police force united in a brilliant flash of misguided idealism. What resulted from this unholy alliance was the new Truancy Center and - to go with it - Truancy Cops.

The purpose of truancy cops is to cruise the streets of Spokane looking for unescorted juveniles during school hours. When they find truants, they ship them to the Truancy Center, where the students will be detained until their parents pick them up.

The basic idea is that kids legally belong in school. This is true, but turning Spokane into some type of Orwellian police state for kids is not the ideal solution. Although the truancy policy is well intentioned, it is unfair and basically flawed.

One of the many reasons for the policy is that getting kids in school will decrease crime. While some truants may be up to no good, assuming that all teens who aren’t in school are criminals is not only incorrect, it’s insulting.

The policy reflects a rising belief in Spokane that unescorted kids are the major cause of the city’s problems. This kind of scapegoating gets Spokane nowhere and doesn’t solve any real problems.

Most kids who take off from school for a while are only in search of a break or a longer lunch. They may be shopping or just chilling out. They are not your average perpetrators of street crime. Already scarce police resources are being wasted picking up kids who are guilty of nothing but skipping school. All teens are not criminals, so why are police treating us as such?

Often when kids skip, they only leave for one or two periods and return to school later. Now these “one-class truants” get shipped off to the Truancy Center and will miss even more school than they would have if they’d been left alone.

If the truancy cops are supposed to help students stay in school, why do they often end up making them miss more? The center seems more of a place of fear and punishment than something designed to help kids on the road to success.

This “might is right” attitude was taken to a ridiculous extreme at my school a couple of months ago when some students were picked up after going to a nearby 7-Eleven during a class break.

These students were not missing any school nor were they planning to.

They would have returned to class on time, suitably refreshed. Yet they were picked up and missed the rest of the school day because of the truancy cops.

So what does this policy really accomplish? A chance for control freaks in the police force and school system to harass any kid they see, to intimidate juveniles into being “good.”

Controlling teens will never be the answer to any of Spokane’s problem.

The Truancy Center and cops are only draining money from the things that really could help Spokane and teens.

By using the truancy laws, Spokane seems to be teaching students the lesson that force and control will solve anything.

I thought the whole point of education was to teach us that that was wrong.

PRO By Sharma Shields/Ferris

Last summer I wrote an article bashing the newly formulated Truancy Center, labeling it as a worthless system designated to punish teens, not to help them. Unfortunately, as I regrettably look back on my writings, I realize my article stemmed from a lack of information. Now, after speaking to the center’s officials and some teens who experienced the center’s activities, I see the program blossoming into an extremely positive influence, both for students and their families.

The officers roaming the streets for class-skippers are not looking for seniors. Or juniors. Or sophomores, for that matter. Instead, their focus falls upon the neophyte truants of the Spokane community. As in archery, the smaller the target, the better the aim.

“We are more interested in junior high and grade school students versus the older skippers,” explained an officer who visited an Inner-High Senate Meeting. “We are trying to stop students from falling into the truancy pattern, and the best way to catch them is early on. By the time we reach high school students, it’s too late anyhow.”

Of course, older-looking students do not get off scot-free. If spotted loitering in a public area, they too may be captured. This may anger some high schoolers, as it angered me, but those feelings are actually selfish. The truancy center, by concentrating on a younger generation, is helping truants and their families far more than you or I understand.

When the apprehended students arrive at the center, the parents are notified immediately. Sadly enough, a large percentage of guardians do not act surprised, or even worried. Most say they won’t pick up their child and take them back to school until after work. Others hang up the phone. Distressed truancy officials already see a pattern of indifferent parenting creating indifferent studying.

After every truant leaves the center, the center calls the school and researches the parent’s attitude toward their offspring’s absence. If they discover a bigger problem than they can handle, the truancy center backs away. But if there’s a chance of helping the student, liaisons hold long discussions with both the child and the guardians, and offer counselors directly associated with the center for further help. This, according to one ex-skipper at Chase, is what makes the difference.

“The counselors really made my parents realize some stuff they were doing wrong,” the seventh-grader said gratefully. “And sitting in that stupid room all day doesn’t make you want to skip more either.”

The center’s accomplishments with many families and tiny skippers rapidly decrease the truancy rates with every month the center operates. Teenage complaints, however, continue to increase. And I agree that perhaps some of the truancy center’s ideas need polishing. These protests, however, seem trivial when compared to the positive effects the center gives the community.

I understand what a drag school can be, and I, too, occasionally skip when the taste of learning turns rather bland. The truancy center, however, is not attempting to reprimand someone who is truant only once every few months. They are instead attempting to save a child from falling into the clutches of continuous absence. In a sense, they’re saving the truant’s future. And for their brave actions in a time of fierce rebellion, the truancy center should be rewarded, not scorned.