13 yr olds who skip school and too poor to pain fine - go to jail

[The Straight Story]

Texas County Sued, Judge Indicted, for Jailing 13-Year-Olds Ditching School

Unable to pay fines for skipping school, teenagers as young as 13 in an impoverished Texas county have wound up spending weeks in local jails, according to a lawsuit filed against Hidalgo County. Lead plaintiffs Francisco De Luna and Elizabeth Diaz claim they spent 18 days in the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Facility for truancy tickets they received beginning when they were only 13 and 14 years old. The lawsuit says that about 150 teens have had their constitutional rights violated by being locked up for an offense that’s not supposed to be punishable with jail time.


The complaint focuses on one judge in particular, Justice of the Peace Mary Alice Palacios, who handles most of the charges of failing to attend school…sometimes hundreds per week. On Wednesday, July 28, Palacios was indicted by a Hidalgo County grand jury, charged with “official oppression” in regard to truant students. This charge can cover intentional denial of an individual’s rights by a public servant.

The median per capita income in Hidalgo County is $9,899, and 45% of children 18 and younger live in poverty.

http://www.allgov.com/Controversies/ViewNews/Texas_County_Sued_Judge_Indicted_for_Jailing_13_Year_Olds_Ditching_School_100729

[eilen]

1. Lemmmee guess, for-profit privately run detention centers in the vicinity..... nt

[The Straight Story]

2. Well, the do have a new jail there

Hidalgo County Adult Detention Facility

The new Hidalgo County Jail can house approximately 1,000 inmates on a daily basis. We house inmates from the Sheriff's department,
the local municipal police departments, federal, and state law enforcement agencies.


http://www.hidalgoso.org/template3/detention.htm

[G_j]

11. there you go

for profit..

[malaise]

3. Ding ding

We have a winner

[sui generis]

4. 18 days?????

So in Dallas if you get a moving violation or parking ticket and you refuse to pay cash, you can go sit in jail for a day or two and it's taken care of.

Well the good news is there is a single person behind the problem, not a systemic issue.

What IS a systemic issue in Texas is "impoverished" school systems, period.

You can't drive past a public school older than 20 years anywhere in Dallas county that doesn't have falling apart annex buildings, overcrowded lots, decaying exterior equipment - it's a pretty sad state of affairs.

[Quezacoatl]

5. I'm trying to understand this

It's so important for kids to be in school that the County fines them for skipping a day.

If they can't pay the fine, the County forces them to miss many more days of school by putting them in jail.

I suppose it wouldn't surprise me if this County fined the kids for skipping school on the days they were in jail.

[seabeyond]

12. they are forced to do school while in juvie. nt

[Tsiyu]

6. You know a judge is getting kickbacks

or has lost her marbles if she believes jail is in any child's best interest as a first resort.

What a cruel human being.

[Javaman]

8. probably all three: kickbacks, lost her mind and is cruel. nt

[timo]

7. she has been doing this a while

http://www.valleymorningstar.com/news/county-34144-truancy-palacios.html

[timo]

9. congressman hinojosa got her a bunch of $$$

http://www.valleymorningstar.com/news/school-35777-district-truancy.html

read the story, she was getting federal money to EXPAND her celebrated program,

[asdjrocky]

10. When I was young-

people told stories like this about the USSR so I would be afraid of communism.

We've gone around the bend.

[seabeyond]

13. this is an odd and interesting kinda event. all sides are being hit with issues and demand put on

them. i have watched it happen in my brothers family and it is happening in a lot of families.

you have society demanding, insisting, yelling that the schools make sure these kids learn and go to school and dont drop out. they have implemented and enforce every way they know how to make the kid do school.

you have so many single parents or two working parents that cannot be there to make sure the kid is in school. they try, but still if the kid doesnt want to.

you have kids that dont want to go to school, so they dont.

the schools fine the parent, demand the parent makes sure kid goes to school. these aprents dont have the money to pay.

you have society yelling at them for "letting" kid drop out. and yelling at them for putting fines on families.

it is a mess.