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In the ongoing saga of Detroit's dysfunction comes Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy's (pictured above) bright idea to jail parents in Detroit for up to three days for repeatedly missing parent-teacher conferences.
Worthy's argument is that parents who are not accountable for their children are part of the problem with elevated truancy, dropout rates and a recent rash of violent crimes involving teens:
Headline is wrong. It isn't about PTA meetings, it is about parent-teacher conferences. Either way, it won't pass. Should parents commit to these conferences? Of course. Can you make it a legal requirement? No.
So they might want to build some new jails;talk to obama and say yu have shovel ready projects in Detroit. But then they had better form some Poisies too.
I would rather see the child put in protective custody rather than have the parents put in criminal custody.
If the parent goes to jail because of the children, however indirectly, it is not unreasonable that the child will suffer when the parent gets out, if you know what I mean. If the parent truly cares for the child, he/she will do what is necessary to keep the child in the home. If the parents only see the children as a meal ticket by way of public aid, then removing the child from the home deprives the parent of income. Again, the parent is more motivated to keep the money coming in, and he/she will likely to do what it takes to prevent the disruption of cash flow.
I don't know what the relative cost to the state is for jailing parents versus foster care for children, but it would be worth finding out. In any case, children whose parents won't come to conferences, as opposed to those who can't, may be better off with caring adults who provide more structure in the home.
What happens when the mother (there's more often than not never a father involved in Detroit) works nights?
Then an alternate date and time is given.
I'm a teacher at a charter school. Parents have to opt-in to our school and they are held to the requirement that they MUST attend all parent-teacher conferences. If they do not attend, they can be kicked out of our school. Our principal has even made the commitment that if a parent cannot attend during our days, we will go to the student's house!
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