Yeah. If a child is being neglected or abused, you take them out of that situation. There’s a very good argument to be made that a parent who is letting their child skip school is being neglectful. If it says it was rarely used, then it was probably under the most extreme circumstances.

I grew up in Minneapolis and was... a bit of a juvenile delinquent. I will always hate her on a personal level from the time she tried to charge me with a felony over petty vandalism. When my public defender hired an independent investigator and found the damage that was <allegedly> caused was only worth a petty…

I think what people are saying is that a lot of the cases involve parents who simply can’t be bothered or parents who are actively keeping their children from school. 

Exactly. That mom needs legal intervention because she is robbing her daughter of her basic human right to an education. 

Harris’ policy also only took very few people to court and was just a means to get in touch and communicate and help parents. Klobuchar’s seems drastically ill advised if you are taking kids to court.

This is a super complex problem. Here in Virginia, your school’s accreditation is tied to attendance. My school has 2 full time people and one part time person whose jobs are to go to homes and try to get high school students to come to school. (Of course, since shit runs downhill and teachers are at the bottom of…

There is a place for legal recourse where truancy is concerned, though we also have to recognize the rich tapestry of institutionalized unfairness which traditional surrounds it. I say this as a kid who had truancy issues in high school because my parents were consumed by purely personal problems (tumultuous…

Is should also be pointed out that in Harris’s case, it was the parents that were supposed to be held to answer for the truancy, not the kids. 

Exactly. I don’t know how people can bemoan a lack of education contributing to Trump and the refusal to believe climate change, but then criticize attempts to increase attendance when all else has failed. 

This is launching torpedoes at a ship that has already sunk before it even set sail.

While the merits can be debated, going from 8.5% to 7.5% is actually a 12% reduction. That’s hardly insignificant.

Oh FUCK. Now Trump is going to want to get an entire CITY named after him.

In a lot of the coverage people seem to be conflating religious beliefs with cultural practices. Whereas a Jehovah’s Witness would reject a blood transfusion on religious grounds, the Orthodox community’s rejection of vaccines seems purely cultural. The distinction is important insofar as our laws provide exemptions…

I don’t know how to put this in a way that doesn’t sound like a 2nd grader but we are a ridiculous species that can go to the moon but still need to reminded that bad things are bad every 50 years or so, or else we forget the bad things are actually bad.

Can I get “Hot Takes” for $1000 Alex?

Grow up. Taylor swift did.

lol

She wanted to go to Arizona State because party school, but said long before this scandal she didn’t want to go to school at all. There’s video of this. Her parents said no, you’re going to USC, so that’s what she did. I think we need to be a little more gentle on these kids. If you don’t think so, go check out…

I mean, even if she knew what they were doing she likely didn’t have much choice in the matter. I wouldn’t expect someone who grew up with overbearing parents, never having to fend for herself to be able to have the skills or knowledge to just say “fuck you mom and dad”, pack and her bags, and leave to get a fresh…

As an Old who doesn’t get the whole “private Stories on Instagram”, I want to roll my eyes a little bit at that because there’s never anything truly private on the internet. But honestly, whatever gets her through.