Saturday, September 6, 2008

Parents summoned to court after children miss school

Clara Garcia News-Bulletin Staff Writer; cgarcia@news-bulletin.com

Los Lunas Of the 20 families summoned to magistrate court in Los Lunas to deal with their child's habitual truancy issues Wednesday, only seven parents appeared before the judge to learn what the consequences could be for them if the problem isn't resolved.

One by one, parents of elementary and middle school students stood in front of Magistrate Tina Gallegos to explain why their children continued to accrue unexcused absences. All of those called into court are parents of students who have continued to miss more than 10 days of school last year and have yet attend required a truancy workshop.

According to Joe Bruno, the truancy liaison for the Los Lunas School District, those parents who didn't show up for court on Wednesday will be automatically referred to the Juvenile Probation and Parole Office and the district attorney's office for potential prosecution if their child accrues one more unexcused absence.

The first of the seven parents who met with Gallegos told the judge that her son, a student at Tomé elementary who had a total of 28 unexcused absences last school year, missed school because she has been very sick and he didn't want to leave her side. She did tell the judge that they are now living with her mother, and his grandmother is making sure that her son is going to school.

While Gallegos sympathized with the mother, the judge explained that state law requires her to make sure that her son goes to school.

"What we're trying to accomplish here today is to tell you that this is your final warning and the next step would be to refer you to the juvenile probation office," Gallegos said. She told the parent that she must sign an attendance contract with the school promising she will make sure that her son goes to school and she'll attend the workshop, which will be held on Thursday, Sept. 25.

"It's extremely important for you to understand that you can be prosecuted, and if the D.A.'s office decides to prosecute you, you could be fined and required to do community service for a first offense," Gallegos said. "A second offense could be a petty misdemeanor that includes jail time and a $500 fine."

Another mother whose son missed 23 days as a 5th grader at Raymond Gabaldon Elementary was given the same warning from Gallegos. She told the judge that her son had missed so many days of school because they had 12 deaths in the family in one year.

Gallegos told the woman that a death in the family is considered an excused absence. The parent said she did send notes to her son's school.

Another parent whose son missed 26 days last year told Gallegos her son had missed several days because he almost lost his eye when he was shot by a BB gun. She told the judge that she did send a note with her son to school to excuse his absence, but he forgot to take it to the office.

One mom told the judge that her son missed 22 days at Tomé Elementary last year when he was in second grade simply because "He just didn't want to go," the mother said.

"It's not up to you whether or not you want to go to school," Gallegos told the little boy. "You have to go to school."

Another mother told the judge that her son, a Los Lunas Middle School student who had 37 unexcused absences, that he was sick for most of those days. The judge said if he were sick, then those absences would have been excused.

"He has to be in school; it's not an option," Gallegos told the mother. "Thirty seven unexcused absences is unacceptable."

According to numbers supplied by Bruno, 11 of the 20 elementary and middle school students identified as habitual truants had between 19 and 25 unexcused absences last year, seven had between 26 and 35 absences. One student had 37 unexcused absences and another had 57. Bruno said those with the highest numbers of unexcused absences didn't show up to court Wednesday.

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