Dallas News Blog

It is a defense to prosecution under Subsection (b) that the minor was

[...]

(H) exercising First Amendment rights protected by the United States
Constitution, such as the free exercise of religion, freedom of speech, and the right of assembly

So a bunch of kids skip school and hang out off-campus, and when the police try to issue citations for violating curfew, the kids claim their right of assembly. What am I missing here?

You don't get an "A" for cutting class, Mr. Natinsky. As a matter of fact, the council just made it a $500 fine.

Was he not paying attention?

Woohoo! No more parenting needed!!!!

Just think, if we issue a $500 fine each time a student fails to do their homework, that will "give their parents leverage" to make sure the kids do their assignments. And if they're not doing their homework, they're probably committing a crime, so this will reduce youth crime rates.

"[but] the fact we've had 1,900 kids picked up and put in truancy says more than I could say that what we have today isn't working."

It also says, in light of the terrible graduation numbers, that the kids have learned how to avoid authorities.

And isn;t avoid any sort of authority what the DISD all about!

So what happens with the Dallas CAN Academy students? That is, the students that start their strenuous and arduous day at 10:00am and finish at 1:00pm?

Surely they belong in custody for some other crime they have committed, but not for truancy.

Great. Another method for criminalizing children and increasing traffic along the "school to prison pipeline." Don't your police have enough powers when it comes to bothering kids - especially minority kids? You already have truancy laws - why in God's name do you need to criminalize children who might be legitimately out of school or on the streets during daylight hours?

"Dallas Can't Academy", you obviously know nothing about the Can!'s mission or the courageous kids who graduate from there while also working. But way to slander them!

I agree with alawyer . . . our clueless City Council has fallen down on the job. Hopefully, someone will challenge this unconstitutional ordinance for what it is.

In lieu of the $500 fine, the delinquents can pick up a shift at the new convention center hotel. Win win win.

Right, guys? Because studies have so totally shown that the threat of punishment effects the rates of transgression. Right?

And making students all feel like they are in a concentration camp for being young and unimpressed with our unimpressive public school system will totally be liberating, and inspire positive change.

God forbid we do something like put money into our schools and support alternative teaching programs to actually get kids excited about learning.

Good job Dallas

If this is progress, count me out.

More proof that schools are prisons designed not to teach but to corral the creative and unruly alike and turn them both into mindless cogs for industry.

You seem to forget about something, home school children.. What about them?

This is a stupid and reprehensible law. The kids who commit the 17% of daytime crime by people under 18 will not be intimidated by this law, and it will not get them back in school. Crime won't go down. In fact it will probably go up because police will be patrolling for mostly innocent kids rather than investigating real crime.

But we have found another way to criminalize and disenfranchise our intelligent and hard working children that would do well to be exposed to other learning opportunities outside of the classroom. I will actively be campaigning against the 12 who voted for.

I agree with this new daytime curfew.

Think of it this way: Who is 95% responsible for the development of children? PARENTS.

If a parent has failed to instill in their children the importance of education (attendance), then they deserve that $500 bad-parenting fine.

I was at a horrible inner-city elementary school. My friends often skipped school, threw bricks through the auditorium windows, joined violent gangs, etc. They were my friends because they made up the entire population of the school. Regardless, I went to school every day. I did not throw bricks through the auditorium windows. I did not join a gang.

Why? My parents were parenting. Their parents were not.

Stupid is as stupid does. This law should be classified under revenue enhancement. No law is going to keep older teens in school when they don't want to be there. And $500 is an extraordinary large bite on parents that might not even know their children escaped from school.

While the all knowing council are busy passing laws how about doing something about the laws that prevent effective discipline in the home? Everyone that suggested the focus should be on making school interesting are right on the mark. Why can't the city focus on curing the disease rather then treating the symptom.

Wouldn't it be nice to do something about that interesting quirk in the law that allows a teen to legally walk out of the household door at 17 but holds parents responsible for school attendance through the age of 18 or graduation, which ever comes first.

Can't wait to see this one get tossed on Constitutional grounds.

So this means no after school sports, no clubs, no extra cirricular activities, no socializing with friends? You might as well put kids in a jail cell then send them to school starting from elementary school. This is one of the worst and ignorant ideas I have ever heard of.

@Ryan: Nice comparison. $500 is a hefty, but acceptable, fine for truancy.

40mph in a school zone should be $500+.

How sad- Texans used to be a proud and independent people. Now they're raising a generation to be so spineless they can't even go outside without getting permission.
I wonder what Sam Houston would have said if you told him he couldn't go outside without permission.
...on second thought, I don't wonder at all what he'd say!

"force kids to learn" anything

Why oh why, do adults have such malice toward teens as to begrudge them the right to come and go freely, a right the adults themselves take for granted?

What everyone is overlooking is that teaching has become a combat-zone occupation. Poorly paid, no respect, terrible working conditions, and students with an in-your-face attitude: why would anyone want to stay in the profession? If a good teacher has to be an entertainer, then he or she would be making the big money in Hollywood. My best teachers were no-nonsense, unexciting professionals who saw that we worked hard, and learned the joy of self-discipline. Only the home and parents can change attitudes. There is no reason for students to be on the streets (except to rip off someone's household goods). Home-schooled students would be accompanied by the adult teaching them, so there is no problem there. If a student is going to a doctor, they would have a note or an adult with them. So, no problem with that. Let's put the responsibility where it belongs---on the home.

Margaret

1. Kids dismissed at 1 PM should have documents that give a valid excuse, and they OUGHT to not be affected.
2. chris von danger: It is perfectly justifiable to try to make money off of "ancillary revenue" - Businesses tend to leave places with too high taxes, so by having lower taxes and punitive revenue sources, The Big D makes businessmen and lovers of social services happy.