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truancy court problems

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bigtee32

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Pa. My 16 year old son has been late to school a lot through out the years he's been in school, I have been to court three times already, the second time i when to court i was jail and released on a $500 bail for my son and daughter, mine you my daughter has a clean record.The third time i went to court i had a medical letter saying that my son is being tested for a sleep disorder,and to please excuse his lateness. His school ask me to get this letter to excuse some of his lateness and for him to try to get to school on time, some days he does. The judge said i don't know who this doctor think she is trying to pull wool over his eyes. Then I tried to explain about his grades, my son is in special education classes and has a IEP, his teacher said that my son has no motivation so thats what i told the judge and he hit his gavel and said go to the back and think about some motivation to give your son. He jail me again and release me on $300 bail. the court now have $800 of money that i had to borrow because i'm on a fix income.Did the judge have the right to throw me in jail for just telling him what my son teacher said. And do i have a case for false imprisonment.
 


HomeGuru

Senior Member
bigtee32 said:
What is the name of your state? Pa. My 16 year old son has been late to school a lot through out the years he's been in school, I have been to court three times already, the second time i when to court i was jail and released on a $500 bail for my son and daughter, mine you my daughter has a clean record.The third time i went to court i had a medical letter saying that my son is being tested for a sleep disorder,and to please excuse his lateness. His school ask me to get this letter to excuse some of his lateness and for him to try to get to school on time, some days he does. The judge said i don't know who this doctor think she is trying to pull wool over his eyes. Then I tried to explain about his grades, my son is in special education classes and has a IEP, his teacher said that my son has no motivation so thats what i told the judge and he hit his gavel and said go to the back and think about some motivation to give your son. He jail me again and release me on $300 bail. the court now have $800 of money that i had to borrow because i'm on a fix income.Did the judge have the right to throw me in jail for just telling him what my son teacher said. And do i have a case for false imprisonment.

**A: there is more to this story. You should have gotten jail for being in denial.
 

bigtee32

Junior Member
It happen just like i explain, there is no more to this story and i had a court room full of poeple as my witness, people say that this judge thinks he's god
 

HomeGuru

Senior Member
bigtee32 said:
It happen just like i explain, there is no more to this story and i had a court room full of poeple as my witness, people say that this judge thinks he's god

**A: you are not telling us the complete story. So I won't axe you again.
 

bigtee32

Junior Member
This is the whole story my son is 16 years old with ADHD and being tested for a sleep disorder. my son has been late to school last year a lot. after the 10th lateness you are suspended every time after that. The school has in school suspensions but everytime i ask for inschool they say that he can't have it, so he missed 50 days of school. In june i took my son to the doctors about his sleeping problem, i had to try other methods first before they will consider testing, so now we are at the testing stage. My son has been late this year 11 times so now the suspensions have began. the judge said i should have taking care of this last year, but i did in june i had no idea that my son had this disorder. As far as my sons grades he has ADHD attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and is in part-time special education classes and has and IEP, in 8th grade he was in fulltime classes and did very well, as soon as he got to high school, according to their testing he need only parttime classes. I think as a result his grades drop, the work got harder and he lost interest in school. I'm trying to get him place in a AP school, So far from what i learned his teacher thinks he's fine right where he's at.
 
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stealth2

Under the Radar Member
I guess I'm not understanding why you're not physically waking him and getting him to school on time.
 

bigtee32

Junior Member
I do wake him up do you know how hard it is to wake someone up that has a sleeping disorder? I throw cold water on him,and he's too big to pull out the bed, and once he's up he's slow moving. I take things away for him and don't buy him things that he likes. I've even tried to play the reward game for doing well nothing works. And as far as walking to school he rides the trolley and I have other children that i have to get ready.
 
In answer to your question,
Did the judge have the right to throw me in jail for just telling him what my son teacher said. And do i have a case for false imprisonment.
He didn't throw your in jail for telling him what the teacher said. You were place in jail and fined because your son is not going to school. This is legal. He can typically fine you for each day that your son doesn't go to school.

The judge believes you are the problem. He could have jailed your son, which is the common practice. Since he went to this extreme, I'm assumming you have been in front of him with your son a number of times over the years.

I have seen hundreds and hundreds of truancy cases. I have seen judges threaten parents before, but I haven't seen a judge use this option before you. You need to the judge that you have done everything possible to place the responsibility back onto your son. This is what the judge is trying to do.

You know your son can plead not quilty to the truency charge. I doubt he could withdrawn his plea at this time, but he could try. He could try and then get the court appointed attorney pull the mental health provider who identified with a sleep disorder. I would pay to be in that court room. I bet the judge would eat the mental health provider alive, maybe even boil him/her in the court room.

What you are discribing as a disorder, is a controlable behavior in most adolescence it is identified. Mental health just gave it a title. Here is the described intervention, "Set firm limits, gradual movement of bedtime forward." The other part of this intervention is to remove all distracting elements, e.g., tv, games, out of the room.
 

bigtee32

Junior Member
I've only seen the judge three times, once last year and twice this school year. The only problem my son had was lateness issues, He asked about my sons grades, and i told him that the teacher said he had no motivation that's when he said, well go to the back and think about some motivation to give your son. There is no issue with attendence. this is a judge that abuses his power. People say he thinks he's god with a robe. As for as bed times no matter what time he goes to bed he always wakes up in the middle of the night.
 
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marbol

Member
HomeGuru said:
**A: you are not telling us the complete story. So I won't axe you again.
Why don't you go crawl in a hole somewhere and never come out. You are not helping. Jerk.
 

marbol

Member
This happened to us once before. However, I fail to see why lateness equates to truancy/absences. Absences are absences. The law where I live states a student needs to be in school 90 percent of the required time to remain in compliance.

My daughter hadn't missed a day, but was late quite a bit by minutes. The school arbitrarily said that 3 tardies equals one absence. My daughter had between 4 and 6 classes to attend per day. So she could conceiavbly get 6 tardies per day - which would equate her to being absent 2 days in ONE DAY!!

Now tell me what kind of NEW MATH is that? But that is what they did and took us to court.

The judge heard this, and stated that the school CAN NOT arbitrarily say that x number of tardies equals one absence and scolded the school "attorney." that if he saw more cases like this he would begin fining the school board for contemt. He then dismissed my case and told the "attorney" to go and apologize to us for wasting our time.

Know what the school did? They reported her attendence to this court hearing as an absense and attempted to re-submit the case and get a different judge. It didn't work.

This is overzealous bull-crap on the part of schools to intimidate students and parents because they get paid per day per student and so it's all about MONEY.

We took our daughter our and home-schooled her from that point on.

She went back to school in a different state two years later and made honor roll. She graduated with honors and is took flying lessons. She is now flying jets over your houses and workplaces. She is not late any more.
 

dallas702

Senior Member
OK...think a little bigger here. If you can't get him to be "motivated" to get to school, how do you think he will act when he has to get to a JOB? Either he needs to get his lazy butt up and to school when it is required, or you have to get someone who will get him there......or, you get him into an alternative program (a "sunset" school for kids who work and go late in the day, home school, tutor, boot camp, etc.). If you think you're tired of dealing with him now just wait until he's 20 and still mooching off of you and claiming he has a sleep disorder. If he doesn't have a father or a real man in the house, see if there is a "big brother" who will come roust him out and take him to school.
 

usaohol

Member
bigtee32 said:
This is the whole story my son is 16 years old with ADHD and being tested for a sleep disorder. my son has been late to school last year a lot. after the 10th lateness you are suspended every time after that. The school has in school suspensions but everytime i ask for inschool they say that he can't have it, so he missed 50 days of school. In june i took my son to the doctors about his sleeping problem, i had to try other methods first before they will consider testing, so now we are at the testing stage. My son has been late this year 11 times so now the suspensions have began. the judge said i should have taking care of this last year, but i did in june i had no idea that my son had this disorder. As far as my sons grades he has ADHD attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and is in part-time special education classes and has and IEP, in 8th grade he was in fulltime classes and did very well, as soon as he got to high school, according to their testing he need only parttime classes. I think as a result his grades drop, the work got harder and he lost interest in school. I'm trying to get him place in a AP school, So far from what i learned his teacher thinks he's fine right where he's at.
I am confused sleep disorder testing can be done relatively quickly and if there is a sleep disorder why is he not been treated for it? Why did his doctor wait so long to do testing?
 

majano

Junior Member
To bigtee32

I feel what you're saying and asking but I don't know the answers. I can't believe how some people spoke to you! Your son needs help. You'll find helpful, compassionate replies (not a legal forum) at schwablearning.com
I think when someone is asking for help, a person can respond with helpful information, or hold the impulse to write an intimidating response.
This is a valuable forum, but there are some cruel people here who are not willing to be flexible (with their method of responding) to "individuals."
bigtee; You decide who is helpful and don't bother responding to the rest. Let them own their own misery.
I have probably now made "the list"
Luckily I got some helpful information before my topic was "locked"
 

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