Stopping truancy

Jenifer Johnson said she’s learned her lesson about skipping school.

She didn’t learn it when her mom, Mindi Daniels, disconnected her personal phone, took away her big screen TV and grounded her. Instead she kept right on cutting class.

“It just made me madder,” the 15-year-old OHS sophomore said.

She did learn her lesson, however, when her Tuesday evening court date with Municipal Court Assistant Judge Dennis Jones frightened her into class after being truant for more than 20 days this school year.

“I was scared at the beginning that he was going to take me to jail,” Jenifer said after Jones handed down the court order.

Jones required the 10th-grader to complete about 23 hours of community service by June 22 and also have her teachers sign a form each day for 30 consecutive days saying Jenifer was in class.

And that order still has to be followed when classes resume after summer.

Jenifer, one of more than 80 students and parents to go before the court since it reopened in April, said she knew of the court but didn’t think she would ever be summoned.

“It’s almost like she was saying, ‘I dare you. Do it!’ ” Daniels said, noting Jenifer’s been misbehaving since she was in eighth grade.

In addition to the help with getting Jenifer in class, Daniels also got a gift of her own: Charges against her were dropped.

TRUANCY INTERVENTION

Scott Randolph, lead social worker for Ector County Independent School District’s Student Assistance Services, said truancy doesn’t happen overnight — it builds up over time.

Randolph, who works with elementary school parents, said he filed about 1,800 charges with the court this school year.

Randolph said parents should be responsible.

“It is a tough issue,” he said. “We’ve got to take steps as a community to fix it — and it starts with the parents.”

After students rack up about seven unexcused absences, SAS social workers try to contact parents to work out the problem — especially before a 10th absence warning has been given. Randolph said it’s sometimes difficult to contact families who move around a lot.

On the 10th warning, a summons will be issued. At that point, parents are offered parenting advice or counseling to help solve the problem.

“The parents are expecting the school district to provide the discipline, and that’s just not feasible,” Randolph said.

THE SYSTEM

Jones presides over the court now, but the truancy court has had to change directions several times in recent years.

ECISD decided to take the truancy court from the municipal court to Juvenile Judge Jim Bobo’s court in November 2005.

However, since the court was set under the juvenile court, it didn’t have jurisdiction over teens 17 and older or children under 10. (A 17-year-old is considered an adult under Texas criminal law. Children in elementary school — specifically under 10 years old — can’t be prosecuted, but their parents can be.)

This year, ECISD Police Chief Brian Moersch headed up a truancy court committee and requested help from the City of Odessa and Ector County in creating a new truancy court.

ECISD’s board of trustees approved a truancy court contract in March to move the court back under the city for $14,000 a month and a total of $356,000 the first year.

The Odessa City Council OK’d the agreement in April.

Moersch said the court helps those who appear in court.

“It doesn’t matter if they are fined $1 or $200,” Moersch said. “It’s just whatever it takes to get them back in school.”

COURT SUMMONS

ECISD officer Jeff Daniels applies that thinking to his job when tracking down students and parents up to four times a day to serve a summons or arrest warrant, he said.

“We spend a lot of manhours out trying to get these,” he said.

When he served Veronica Guerra with a summons for her eighth-grade daughter Bianca Castellano earlier this month, Guerra said she wasn’t sure how or why her 14-year-old would skip.

“I just don’t know what it is … being a teenager or whether she’s hanging out with the wrong crowd,” she said, noting her ex-husband’s death about five months ago may play a part in the problem.

CHANGING LIVES

Jones, who presides over the truancy court, said he hopes the students summoned to court will realize the consequences and turn their lives around.

“Hopefully, some of the students can learn to love learning,” he said.

Randolph said he sees many parents take the reins and students shape up after appearing in court.

“Really, it changes lives, and I have no problems filing charges,” he said. “I think it helps families.”

For Jenifer, she said she’s disappointed in herself for her actions.

Jenifer said she plans on doing the community service and having her teachers sign her form.

“I hope it works,” her mom said.