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To Curb Truancy, Dallas Tries Electronic Monitoring
The New York Times is reporting that a school district in Texas is trying a new angle in combating truancy. Instead of punishing students with detention they are tagging them with electronic monitoring devices. "But the future of the Dallas program is uncertain. Mr. Pottinger's company, the Center for Criminal Justice Solutions, is seeking $365,000 from the county to expand the program beyond Bryan Adams. But the effort has met with political opposition after a state senator complained that ankle cuffs used in an earlier version were reminiscent of slave chains. Dave Leis, a spokesman for NovaTracker, which makes the system used in Dallas, said electronic monitoring did not have to be punitive. 'You can paint this thing as either Big Brother, or this is a device that connects you to a buddy who wants to keep you safe and help you graduate.'"
I wonder which of these two conclusions the students will come to.
I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. - Feynman
I was born in Dallas, I was raised in Dallas, I went to college in the Dallas area, and I still live in Dallas.
I have _never_ been more ashamed of this city than I am now.
I support the Center for Consumer Freedom
That depends. If only students with a history of truancy are tagged, then I don't have a problem with this. However, as with all things handled by the government, they will eventually expand it to automatically tag all students, regardless of their attendance record.
-- Will program for bandwidth
I always joked that highschool was like prison. Nothing to do (with our poor education budget) but to wait to get out after you've served your 4 years. Now its really going to be true, thats really very sad.
Keep in mind a couple of things:
* The kids in the program were on the verge of being sent to the Texas Youth Commission, aka Juvenile Detention.
* Once you're in the TYC, you're likely to be beaten, raped, and held indefinitely.
When the choice is between being treated *like* a criminal, versus learning to *be* a criminal in Texas highly successful Criminal Conversion System, I think it's pretty obvious why any judge would choose to give the kid an ankle shackle instead of condemning him to (eventual) death.
Of course, the "choice" is mind-numbingly stupid. Now that the story of the TYC abuses has finally broken, maybe the next legislature will do something about the broken system that turns minor offenders into hardened criminals. Not likely, of course, because nobody ever got voted out of office for putting *too many* men, women, or children in jail.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
Sounds like so much doublespeak to me.
What's next? Tattoos on the backs of the necks of the little snowflakes? Where are these kids parents, why aren't they getting involved and paying attention to what their kids are doing?
Yeah, I'm gonna go with "Big Brother" on this one...
But I guess Big Brother is our buddy, right?
AEIOU: open-source anonymous internet currency
'You can paint this thing as either Big Brother, or this is a device that connects you to a buddy who wants to keep you safe and help you graduate.'"
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. - Benjamin Franklin
Freedom includes the right to screw up. Trying to protect people from themselves is the worst kind of tyranny. I only wish more people would realize this.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
So what will be next, the implanted chip into our children? To keep them safe? Out of harms way?
Safe from whom?
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
The map on the article is just a doctored up map and not an actual map showing actual locations of children. With all the nut jobs running around kidnapping kids of all ages, this seems like the dumbest thing for them to post to the world.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
Wow.... barf all over. Go ahead and make all the kids that don't want to goto school go to school with the kids that do. Only 30-35% of the population completes college. We need a damn good program to get these kids off the streets and into alternative education system. I want more thenCheap Tax Payer funded Day-Care from 7-3pm everyday!
Seriously, that principal just has it out for him.
What idiot came up with that idea? If you really wanted to implement it, then you'd try to combine the student ID into a watch or cell phone and assign them to students. I'd say some type of Cell Phone ID card would allow you to pack the most instruments in small form factor for your "students."
Let's see, you could actually bill it as a PDA/ipod type of thing for the students productivity and give them limited student to student/faculty/parent communications. You get GPS tracking for everyone that takes you up on the offer and if you offer to backup all their PDA/ipod data you could have all that as well. You could have cameras/video/audio recorders built in and spy on their activities that way as well.
If I had a big brother, I'm sure that he, too, would want to "keep [me] safe and help [me] graduate."
However, I don't, and I did quite fine all by my self. The government can't even keep track of laptops, how are they supposed to keep track of kids?
It's total bull, just like airport security, only more intrusive. Why do all these "tracking" programs get tested on school kids? Just to get them used to the idea so by the time they're adults, they don't know any better...
It's shameful.
So they're proposing giving free electronics to any student willing to miss a bit of school. Sounds like a great deal for the students, as long as these devices are easy enough to program.
Unless Texas has a truancy law that is much different than the rest of the world truancy is a misdemenour. Tagging children for commiting a misdemenour. Now that's just awful.
I wonder if Dave Leis ever actually read 1984. After all, that was the original intention of Big Brother in the book. "Big Brother is your friend; you can trust Big Brother to protect you from the ills of Eurasia and Emmanuel Goldstein..."
So I guess according to his quote, we can either view this as Big Brother or view it as Big Brother?
I wish I'd realized it when I was still in school -- the shitbuckets trying to tell me education's not a right, but a privilege? WRONG. It's a service I'm paying for. And all that talking about how they aren't a bunch of shitbuckets is just big words if you don't back it with a refund when you don't measure up.
I want my money back.
I was going to say that I have a problem with it no matter what, but on second thought, I think the question should go to the parents. Minors have limited rights, and if the parents want to monitor them using tools the state provides, in order to keep them in school, maybe that's OK. (Personally, if it were my kid, I would consider this a very desperate measure - it certainly doesn't foster mutual trust and respect.)
On the other hand, if this is forced on students without parents' consent, then it's a big problem.
Consider this: parents have a right to know where their kid is at all times; the school should only be concerned about that during school hours. When is the tracking turned off?
Ah come on, Big Brother is your buddy, little guy, and only wants to keep you safe and help you graduate. ... Geez, So painting things the other way, consist of replacing the word "Big Brother" with the more friendly and politically correct word "Buddy" Gotcha!
"Why it looks like Joey's tag is right on top of Maria's...and it is moving up and down rapidly. That would mean Joey is on top of Maria and...OH GOD!!!"
While Dave Leis' touching characterization of the device as "a buddy who wants to keep you safe and help you graduate" clearly comes straight from the heart, many students at the high school have expressed concerns this rule "cuts like a knife".
A spokesman for the school administration added that "We can't stop this thing we've started.".
...which is what these kids actually need.
If parents would actually PARENT, maybe we wouldn't need so much of a "Nanny" state. But until that happens, comparisons to 1984esque totalitarianism is absurd.
I see, it's all a matter of Marketing.
Those aren't "shackles", they're "Safety Restraints" designed to make sure you don't injure yourself while trying to escape!
This isn't "hard labor", it's "Exercise Time"!
That isn't "gruel", it's "Nutrient Density Compound"!
That ankle bracelet, it's not "Big Brother", it's "Big Brothers/Big Sisters" (minus the Big Sister)!
"You can paint this thing as either Big Brother, or this is a device that connects you to a buddy who wants to keep you safe"
The irony in this statement is truly a sad thing to see. Clearly staying in school didn't do much for the author's education
..as long as everyone involved, including teachers, police/guards, politicians, parents, lobbyists/manufacturers, students and probably the rest of the population are tagged and everyone has equal access to the monitoring system.
The problem is always that those with money/power/influence have more rights than those without and that imbalance inevitably leads to a bad place. Children are very lacking in all those areas which has lead to lots of legislation that restricts what children can do.
On a similar subject. I very much dislike how imprisoned criminals in some countries can lose their voting rights. "No taxation without representation" is about far more than taxation in my opinion. Locking someone up may be needed as punishment to uphold law and safeguard the population as a whole, but taking away their right to representation is to go down a dark path.
Selective law enforcement is another one interesting issue. Not to mention the court systems that favor those with money. Every one is about someone more powerful exercising control over those less powerful.
In my high school we used to skip school, walk downtown, and drink beer... With our English teacher...
No joke, and no lie, any AMHS/BTW alums from the 80s care to back me up here?
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
Maybe then the little bastards might be motivated to stay in school.
Seriously though I think drop outs should be just drafted into a new branch of the Peace Corps and sent off to 3rd world countries to work in work groups creating infrastructure for poor people, then they might come to appreciate how good they have it back home and maybe do a little growing up while they are gone.
And if they still refuse to straighten out I say leave them overseas permanently, life is short and the world has an over abundance of assholes. We need to quit wasting so much time on those that don't want to participate
"We have met the enemy, and he is us." -Pogo
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
This isn't the solution....
Parents, please get involved with your children lives!!
There isn't a day that I'm not in my 14 year old daughters life or my other 2 year old daughter life.
I'm constantly on my children about school, studying, and what to expect in life. And the effect of this?? My 14 year old is on the honor role and already has a plan to become an anthropologist. Will she make it? Who knows....I don't care....But at least she has a goal going forward.
It's left blank because I have nothing to say to you punks!
I think I missed the point of the article, one question keeps coming up in my mind: what stops the kid from being truant here? just because their location is monitored, doesn't mean they have to go to school. If you want to stop the kid from being truant, the parents/guardians have to get involved. Drive the kid to school in the morning, teach them the value of an education, show them the importance of being a success in life, most of all try and give the kid a better start than you had. If you raise them like you give a damn, they will care about an education.
This is misleading. Reading this, I thought they were talking about staying after school or missing a break. The NYT's article is talking about "Juvenile Detention" or locking the kids up. Wearing a locating device instead of going to jail is a pretty good deal. If you don't like it ATTEND SCHOOL! If thats too harsh for you and you don't want to go to school drop out and resign yourself to a life of crime or sucking the teat of the welfare system.
Saying that this is "reminiscent of slave chains" is simply assinine. Slave chains were put people against their will by neighboring tribes. This is being done as an alternative to being put in JAIL for breaking the law. I see a difference there.
I would also suggest also requiring those sentenced to this also be required to do community service to help off set the cost...Or would that also be compared to slavery.
Fortunately I didn't have any of these problems when I went to high school since I went to a small private school with a graduating class of 30 students. The real solution to getting kids to make sacrifices today in return for a better future tomorrow is to convince them that they HAVE a future in the first place. If you believe you are going to spend most of your life in jail and get shot and killed before you see your grandchildren, then cutting school, hanging out, selling drugs, and getting all you can right now by any means is a rational choice.
"But the future of the Dallas program is uncertain. Mr. Pottinger's company, the Center for Criminal Justice Solutions, is seeking $365,000 from the county to expand the program beyond Bryan Adams." I heard his career had taken a nosedive, but man, he's really going overboard to make a buck.
Yeah, my karma sucks....but so do the mods.
I'm not going to be an asshole and say that anyone with problems should get a pickax and a kick out the door, but there's a point where you should allocate some of the money for people who can excel but need help, as opposed for people who need help just to pass.
Everyone has a right to an education, but they still have to cooperate enough to get it.
I make websites and stuff. Buy one.
While many Canadians will be glad to hear that they are monitoring Bryan Adams, the rest of us are left to wonder, wouldn't it have been more in the public interest to monitor Celine Dion?
I always remembered Big Brother being a "buddy" who wants to keep you "safe" and who stays connected to you via various devices... So, what's the difference?
The path to enlightenment is truly through homemade drugs!
It puzzles me how many people still don't grasp the costs of an uneducated public. Public education isn't about getting ahead; it is about staying afloat.
It might seem hard for some to believe, but society really is better off if that minimum wage landscaper knows how to read and even how to type. It helps a lot when the 7-11 clerk has a basic understanding of economics. It helps if the lady changing the sheets at the local hotel knows algebra. It helps when the lawn mower mechanic knows something about world history.
There are some large scale issues that require a cooperative effort on a very large scale. Sure, bright, educated people can take the lead on most of these issues. But society will advance much quicker if the average man on the street can grasp the implications of the problem and the possible solutions. If smart people could spend more time thinking up solutions and less time explaining to the "dumb" people why and how to implement those solutions, society could advance more quickly. "Go fill out an application" is much more efficient than "Let me drive you over and fill out an application for you."
Imagine if a postal worker, or say a patent clerk, was capable of applying their education to solve difficult problems. What if a truck driver had enough education to streamline their operations and reduce fuel consumption? Or what if they used their elementary physics education and their hours on the road to conceive new ideas for the ball bearings in their 18 wheels?
Would that help somebody besides themselves?
I have a better idea. Parenting.
Question everything
I'd like to see this guy's other advertising jobs.
"Industrial pollution. You can either paint it as a harmful, life-shortening choking cloud of dust, soot, waste, and possible carcinogens destroying the environment and damaging fragile ecosystems, or you can think of it as a happy, smiling display of happy economic progress! Whoopie!"
"Oh, SURE, we all hear big media painting racism as a selfish hate crime perpetrated by uneducated persons that unfairly targets people just for their heritage, but why not look at it the way I do? I see it as a wonderful, happy buddy system that promotes social interaction with people of your race!"
"Yes, yes, the people keep screaming about how nuclear war will bring about potential centuries of nuclear fallout, incalculable costs in human life, and the destruction of civilization as we know it, but if you would just look past the paranoia and hysterical masses for just a second, you would see we would all get free radioactive energy to run our homes in this time of energy crises, not to mention much quieter evenings without all those people running wild and free like they were crazy or something."
Too bad they didn't have this during Vietnam. It might have detected the truancy of a certain Texas Air Nat'l Guard cadet.
School is NOT about education. It is simply jail/daycare for kids.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
then they probably shouldn't be in school anyway. I live in the Dallas area. There are to many people around here that think school is a day care center for older kids.
Part of the problem is some poor teachers. I mean really poor. It's scary when a teacher can't pass the state exam after 6 tries and she's still there. It's pretty shocking how bad some of these schools are.
And less than 30 miles away are some of the best schools in the country.
He who said 1,000,000 monkeys on 1,000,000 typewriters would eventually type the great novel, never saw an AOL chat room
I'm not sure what this solves for the schools. If given a choice between going to a detention facility, or wearing a GPS device to make sure you go to class, I'm sure most kids will choose the GPS. So you get them in school, but then what? Most kids committing the level of truancy that gets them into that much trouble in the first place don't want to learn, don't want to be in school, and are generally disruptive to the point where they interfere with other students trying to learn. I'm all for trying to help kids with problems get the most out their primary and secondary education, but not at the expense of students who want to learn, or at least, aren't there to prevent other students from learning. Tagging truant students may help solve the truancy problem, but it doesn't mean that they're learning anything, it just means they're doing their time in the warehouse.
They should have made a reality show out of this. The school district could dart the truants from helicopters and put a tag in their ear and RF collar and track their movements.
Nice shot, Jim. Then throw a net over them. That would be funny. Truants Gone Wild. lol.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
If the people concerned in this particular case were adults, I'd agree with you. However, as they haven't reached what is considered the legal age of majority to fully enjoy those rights, I see a number of potential problems.
Aside from that, being subjected to some approved form of compulsory education is almost always the law in the U.S. until you reach that age.
They don't want to help you graduate... they want to get paid. Schools lose money when students don't show up. The whole program is simple math. They are planning on spend X amount of money on preventative programs in hopes of securing Y amount of dollars per student kept in school. They just need to make sure that X is less than Y and I'm sure that there are all sorts of studies that have been done by the vendor to prove that their device will reduce truancy by Z percent and that Z percent is high enough so that X will be less than Y.
I am from the school of thought where using this on Bryan Adams to keep him imprisoned is as far as we need to go.
I'm not here. This isn't happening.
My misbehavior-deterrent system was my dad wielding a belt (nice, thick 2-inch leather one) or my mother with a wooden spoon. She got so good with that spoon across my brother's and my knuckles that she could break the spoon without breaking the skin. And before anyone starts crying abuse, we deserved it.
I didn't do graffiti not because I was afraid of the police, but because I knew that my dad would have me out there removing it - with a toothbrush and my fingernails.
Sure, I ditched school and stayed out late some nights, but even while breaking the rules, I didn't do so audaciously enough to warrant an ass-kicking.
But I have a better solution. Once schools take leave of this trend towards becoming 12-year daycare centers, there will be plainly visible benefits to attending. For the kids that don't want to be there? After age 15 or 16, let 'em go. It will keep the good-for-nothing lowlifes and degenerates away from the kids who at least have the sensibility to try, even just a little bit, to learn something valuable.
As the good jobs gradually slip out of the US, and hard-working immigrants amass wealth and power, there will be plenty of toilet-cleaning, food service and retail jobs available to those dropouts. You don't need much education for a $7/hour job.
The best part is that after the losers drop out and accept horrible jobs, some of them will rear children with strong work ethics and a desire to go further than dad did.
A school is only as 'good' as it's worst students, and I don't necessarily mean grade-wise. By keeping these young adults in school against their will, we are only making life worse for the kids who want to be there.
Years ago, people at 15-16 were working as welders, miners, steel workers, soldiers, dock workers and in other no-diploma-required professions. They made adult decisions and lived through them.
Today, 15-16 year old kids are coddled too much. Let them fall fast and hard. Most will learn pretty quick that the real world isn't selling pot and hanging out at the mall.
The kids who will cause trouble as a direct result of not being detained in school will cause problems anyway. If they really can't be 'saved' by the system, why keep the rotten apples in the same bushel as the kids who have a chance?
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First the medal detectors in school and then cameras now this.
Why don't we just give birth to kids in jail and leave them there, isn't that what we're working towards?
would be to have all publicly elected officials wear these things as a condition of holding the office, followed by forensic analysis of their finances during and for 10 years after their tenure ends ;-)
So snapping a G.P.S. monitor to a kids belt is going to make them more interested in studying and getting good grades in high school? If the kids are choosing to not show up, forcing them into the classroom is not going to help anything, its just going to make the educational system they're going through seem even more dismal.
It's not a well guarded secret that the quality of education in this country is something of a joke internationally. Why not put that $365,000 into the pockets of teachers instead? In my opinion an interesting, charismatic teacher thats actually passionate about what they teach can be FAR more effective in keeping kids in class as opposed to an G.P.S. device. I graduated from a California high school back in 2003, and I can only recall having a couple of teachers who didn't just mindlessly throw textbook and worksheet assignments at you while having no motivation to actually take the time to teach the material or show any interest in it beyond putting together a test, most of which were ridiculously easy and largely pointless in the grand scheme of things. I think the majority of my peers were interested in learning, even the ones who did make a point to be truant, but in a system where teachers are more interested in getting their students high marks on a standardized test to get the school more funding, that interest has a hard time finding anything really meaningful beyond the endless mantra of 'need to know' facts that are beat into our heads day after day. I seriously think around 90% of the education I receieved during those 4 years could have been absorbed in less than 3 months if the school had just given me the reading material and left me alone to pour over it, and that in itself it sad.
Treating high school students like 5 year olds and benchmarking tests isn't an answer, in fact its a ridiculous waste of money from a institution that's systematically getting further and further away from the notion of what education is actually supposed to be about.
Trying to force people to graduate is something that only benefits the school system, not the kids. You can't make them learn if they don't want to learn.
You can blame parents for failing to instill in their kids the idea that knowledge is valuable, but if they don't have it, electronically chaining them to the school is not the solution.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
Why is the state of Texas spending money to monitor kids that don't go to school? Why not make money from it? If the kids don't show up for school, write the parents a ticket. The more they don't go, the more the state makes. Once the bills get high enough, parents will take an active role in their kid's education. Problem solved.
Only a government approved, RFID stamped goat fucking me in the ass while its eyes burn a mark of Satan into my soul will suffice!
Golly gee, what are we teaching these kids? Think about it and you won't have to wonder why the world will be going downhill into the next generation. They learn by example and we're sure giving them one. By the way, kids do have full rights, given at birth by the constitution, just because we don't acknowledge it doesn't make it true. Just more proof that we're hypocrites and are happy to teach it to the youngest of us.
This makes me glad I was homeschooled. How long before all schoolchildren have one that monitors them and complains if they aren't doing their homework?
Fear the penguin.
It is Guardian Angel!
Anonymous Cowards can go fuck themselves -- as can you, whoever the hell you are. If you had ANYthing to say of any value, you'd be willing to put your name to it. So STFU.
Why does the article mention detention? "Instead of punishing students with detention" Since when skipping classes is punished with detention?
This, as much as you may want it to be, is not Big Brother. We (as a civilization) have made life more and more complicated that it practically requires several years of education just to make sense of it. The kids getting slapped with a GPS are the ones not going to school. Go to school = no GPS. Now, this is a GOOD thing to do. This has less to do with government control and more to do with giving children/students options. Here is why: if these students never go to college or never have plans of working anywhere where a diploma from high school will do them a lick of good, the high school diploma is still desirable. If gives them options for future educational growth. Many of those youth who "opt out" of high school don't understand what they are opting out of. They lack the mental faculty and maturity to understand the gravity of their decisions. I don't think you will find anyone who will look back and say, "man, I wish I had not gone to school and I wish I did not have a diploma," even it it was forced down their throat.
No single raindrop believes it is to blame for the flood.
This guy stole the whole idea from The Simpsons episode "The Boy Who Knew Too Much."
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
Wish I had those years back instead of wasting them in a 'public education/indoctrination institution'. I'm serious. My advice to any child is if you don't want to be there, drop out. It's mostly a waste of time. I cannot honestly point to anything I use today in life/career that I learned in school. Not a one. All you need now is an Internet connection and a library card. I'm convinced that if I had children I could have them well versed in the Greek classics and Latin by 11 years old. We are raising our children to be brainless machines & criminals.
How long will it be before that poor little bastard who always used to get stuffed into his own locker will be sitting in class with nine or ten of these things strapped from his ankles to his knees, and the threat of severe bodily harm hanging over his head if he complains.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
1984 should be mandatory reading for every elected or appointed government official. As should be Farenheit 451.
Um, no. That's just wrong. We institutionalize screw ups all the time.
The screw up only has a right to be a screw up until it begins to effect someone else. Then they're screwing up society at which point society has a right to do something about it.
because politicians are more than willing to make us pay for them later in life. You know the type, never a good job, poor health, usually a few addictions that get their money, and worse - children who repeat the cycle
I think school was much better when the fear of punishment (the oppressive state) did very well in encouraging you to behave. The simple fact is, some of these people need to be whacked up side the head. They need a "big brother" though the government isn't the best option.
Here is the question, do you want to pay to keep them from screwing up in the first place or pay for them for the rest of their lives.
and all because we put more value on their "rights" than the rights of the society that has to tolerate and pay for them
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
It's pretty clear you're pissed, so what have you done about this problem other than complain? What is YOUR solution?
Or are you yet another reactionary slashtroll who didn't read the article but thinks he's safe complaining about something he neither understands nor cares about. That is, doesn't care about until it shows up on his favorite web board where he can safely run off at the mouth about the issue then fade back into obscurity, doing not one fucking thing to solve the problem.
I see you talking. I'm sure that's all you're doing.
That is a complete load of crap. The scary part is that this idiot is actually a state senator.
And now you know why the USA will have race problems forever. It's because people exactly like this state senator will keep bringing up the issue at every (inappropriate) possible moment.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
The fact that you've said this means you either don't have any idea what the Constitution says about due process, or you didn't read the article.
So children who have severe mental disorders and will repeatedly harm themselves shouldn't be institutionalized, or are you going to admit your puerile one-size-fits-all view of civil rights isn't actually valid?
And I love that "is an enemy of all our freedoms" crap, you sound like the fundies with their "why do you hate america" nonsense.
Hey kids: just try wrapping it in aluminum foil.
There are BILLBOARDS all over that are telling kids (and adults) to pull their pants up and stop wearing them down just above their knees. Yes, there are 'Stop Sagging' advertisements, I kid you not.
There are schools called CAN or CANN, I forget the acronym, but they are for kids that don't really want to go to school, or have so many kids they just don't have time anymore. You only go to school for 3 hours a day and get the same diploma you and I got for going a full 8 hours a day, taking real classes, passing real tests, to get into a real college.
The most popular afterschool event is to sniff freon from the neighbors a/c unit.
Am I surprised at the truancy tags? No. But I'm tired of spending my tax dollars trying to convert people that live in a subculture of laziness and stupidity into hard working, active adults, when they don't want to be that way in the first place.
Is there a fund to turn nerds into football heroes? Is there a fund to turn band geeks into cheerleaders? While most of the society would think nerds and band geeks would be happier as jocks and cheerleaders, they also think that lazy and stupid people would be happier making money and having an education. Most are there by choice, and society forgets that.
Most Juvenile Detention Centers I am aware of have classes for the detainees. That you didn't know this, or are pretending it's not true speaks to your ability to intelligently discuss this topic.
Now, they're not good classes, and the education, as expected, is difficult. But your statement is still more false than true, and your arguments stemming from it fail as a result of your demonstrated ignorance.
No, no they can't. Nor can they drink alcohol legally.
No, they do not have the same rights. Why are you asking such a ridiculous question?
Please contact me
redfloyd at SPAM gmail dot com but I don't like spam, so leave it out.
Thanks
sconeu aka noman
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Of course, and no one is doing the same at schools...
Why do people like you insist on posting such inflammatory stupid crap? The list of agencies that monitor schools is miles ling and you completely destroy the point your post barely makes bay saying something so idiotic.
Not that the rest of your post wasn't nearly as bad, and wrong. Just that that particular bit of ridiculousness was too far over the top and stupid to be tolerated silently.
See, you'd learn why it's not a form of imprisonment in school. Do you want everyone to be as ignorant as you?
You mean like prison right? Which I pay for So not only would they be dealing with the consequences, I would be paying for them. AND their emergency care, AND the food for their babies (unless you advocate starving the babies too).
Yeah, you need to think through your arguments next time so you don't look so ridiculous.
I wonder how much money the school has asked for from the county for vocational training and job placement assistance for graduating seniors?
Has anyone read Corey Doctorow's "Little Brother"? It not only describes this situation, but also the most likely response to it.
Anyone who thinks this is a good idea is not only an idiot, but is also the vilest danger to the American way of life I can imagine. First it's criminals. Then it's truant kids. Then it's all kids in school - to protect against child abuse you know. Then it's everyone, and objection to the policy is immediate grounds for suspicion ("Why are you complaining if you've got nothing to hide?").
Funny thing is, when we try to hold our government or corporations or even school boards up to the same transparency, they immediately throw hissy fits and start claiming executive privilege and "losing" emails. Why are they complaining if they have nothing to hide?
The crimes of eBay are a disgrace to it's pig latin heritage!
Just curious, do you think of yourself as an asshole?
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
... Idiocy like this is part of the reason we left.
The battle of nanotech, charcoal grey dust clouds and asthma for everyone!
sig sig sig siggy sig
I could see this type of GPS as acceptable but only under strictly controlled circumstances. The ability to choose between juvenile detention and tracking must be mandatory. Also the government must be legally bound to honor the student's choice, and prevented from expanding the program beyond circumstance where it replaces an even more confining lockup.
...that kids guilty of nothing other than spending their own free time as they see fit
So if my 3 year old wants to eat ice cream all day, I suppose that's all right too?
I'm sorry, but as long as someone is being fed, clothed, housed, and raised by someone else, they ought to have some responsibilities to give back. As kids, we go to school so we'll be better off than our parents...or at least be able to afford kids ourselves. There are very few career paths that don't require HS any more.
After they leave their parent's house, let them smoke, hitch-hike, and die in Alaska for all I care;)
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
They are just wasting money...if the kid doesn't wanna be in school they will find a way to get f out....
I mean c'mon if you want them to forced to be in school just buy 1000 dollars worth of hand cuffs and just cuffed them to the chairs.
RUPERT! I TOLD YOU TO WATCH THE BAGS! You were looking at the boys again, WEREN'T YOU.
- I stole your sig.
dallas isn't the first with this idea..nor will they be the last, so long as the technology remains unregulated...
2004 in spring, texas:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/17/technology/17tag.html?ei=5006&en=edeb6cd5169d554b&ex=1101272400&partner=ALTAVISTA1&pagewanted=
alt summary for nyt article: http://www.rfidupdate.com/articles/index.php?id=652
2005 in brittan, california:
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2005/02/66554
later dropped in brittan:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/16/2341200&from=rss
and just so our good friends over there on the camera-happy isles don't feel left out, here's a test program at an edenthorpe, england school last year:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/06/2223218&from=rss
We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control. -- Pink Floyd
Nicely played fortune.
I'm lucky that my kids are sane and are doing well in school, but I'm aware that it is partly luck. I've known parents who thought things were okay, and felt that this was to their credit, only to find later that their 8th grader was part of a prostitution ring at school. Suddenly they felt that their own efforts were a little less of a factor, and all of a sudden it was "the culture," etc. We all want to take credit when things go well.
Soylent Green is peoplicious!
Please look everyone, this is what stupidity, hyperbole and obliviousness look like.
I'm not the one who said "your right to swing your fist ends and the tip of my nose" but one of you imbeciles just modded that AC up for essentially saying "no, that's facism".
No wonder you posted AC, you can't fucking read and don;t want to show it.
NOWHERE did I claim that "society is more important than the individual", and your straw man aside, that wasn't even remotely near my point.
Do you assholes read what you're replying to, or do you just have these diatribes ready to post at the drop of a hat?
it gives them a spanking fetish. And as my girlfriend can attest, it will provide your children with sexual enjoyment for years and years.
in all seriousness, he means: Man up, and punish your own goddamn children, stupid. It's good for them.
Please stop stalking me, bro.
I always did feel like a slave when I was in high school. Now it looks like the schools will be providing the shackles to seal the deal.
The real question that should be asked here is if the student is going to school now because someone bothered to show they care enough about children going to school or because of the "fear" of begin "caught" by the device. I can't help but wonder if someone had just taken the time to talk to the kid if the results would not have been the same.
Please show me where I said it was? You're wrong by the way, as an isolated individual IS A SOCIETY, but let's address your straw man.
I said "There is no FUNCTIONAL difference". Do you see now why you're wrong, or do you need to look up "functional"?
Then why has your reading comprehension failed you in two consecutive posts?
SO now that you've been proven to be incapable of reading with any comprehension (twice) can I expect your posts to improve, or will you still be a moron?
You made a statement that was demonstrably false, this one
That is a lie, by definition. It does not surprise me that you are trying to pretend otherwise, liars such as yourself do that.
But just so you're proven irrfutably wrong
You're a liar. Irrefutably. TWICE.
A complete tangent that demonstrates your willingness to lie to make your point, thus destroying your credibility, and therefore being relevant to ALL of your points.
At least I won't lie about it like you do, then claim I didn't lie about it like you did, then get proven irrefutably wrong like you did.
Don't like it? Take it up with these guys.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/
I'm sure they'll laugh at you just like I am right now.
Awesome! You lied AGAIN!
See, that definition makes my claim TRUE, which where I am at, is an absolute defense for Libel.
How does it feel to be proven a liar (again)?
Replying to my own post, far too long after the story ran to get modded up. But the Dallas Morning News *finally* got around to reporting the story -- weeks after a relatively close vote on a DISD bond issue. DISD is under a cloud, withholding audit results that are likely to show the agency in a poor light, and the vote would have clearly been affected by the news that DISD has such a bad truancy problem that they have to put GPS monitors on their students.
The worst thing about the Morning News article is in how it describes the players who stand to benefit from the program.
New York Times: "Paul Pottinger, the chief executive of the company marketing the truancy monitoring system."
Dallas Morning News: "Paul Pottinger, the program's co-director."
This Pottinger fellow is the one asking for a million bucks or so for the program. Whether it has merit or not, it's awfully suspect to fail to report the fact that he will personally receive a sizable portion of that pot.
Here's the story, DMN style: Dallas ISD uses GPS technology to reduce truancy
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.