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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.'"

6 of 462 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I live in Dallas by Quattro+Vezina · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Another non-smoking redneck town. Nothing worth seeing outside of Deep Ellum. I have to agree. And even Deep Ellum may be going away; the city plans to rennovate it and turn it into the eastern version of the West End (the East End?). Yuck.

    Dallas has been on one steady decline for years. All the places I remember going to as a kid are gone. All development is in Plano and Frisco now, and none of it is anywhere near as cool as what I grew up with in Dallas. Remember Olla Padrida? Good luck seeing anything like that in Nu Dallas/Greater Frisco anymore.

    And you know what I also miss? Smoking areas.

    Damn...I'm only in my 20s, but I already sound like a bitter old man.
    --
    I support the Center for Consumer Freedom
  2. I think it would be more effective if.... by Charcharodon · · Score: 1, Flamebait
    ...they did it like the movie Wedlock. No walls and no guards just a big circle painted around the facility that was 300m in diameter. When they put you in the prison they put a colar on you with 1/4lb of plastic explosives in it. If you got more than 300m away from the other person you were "wedlocked" to (you never knew who that person was) then both your and their colar blew up.

    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

  3. Re:Or like an actual PARENT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    wow - way to be so proud of a messed up kid.
    If you actually read the FA you;d see it is NOT
    imposing MORE restrictions - but less. this isn't
    given out to all the kids, only ones who are already
    chronically absent and sent to truancy court. So
    instead of expulsion, or jail, they carry a GPS beeper. kids interviewed say they don't mind that
    much and the actual results are NOT an escalation
    of problems, but actual regular attendance.

  4. I think I see your problem by hassanchop · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I fail to see how forcing someone by law to be somewhere involuntarily for 6 hours / day 5 days / week 39 weeks / year for about 12 years can not be considered a form of imprisonment.


    See, you'd learn why it's not a form of imprisonment in school. Do you want everyone to be as ignorant as you?
  5. Re:You left something out by Hognoxious · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Making people responsible for their own actions and the consequences when they affect other people equals fascism? I must have missed that memo.

    I would say that you intend to legalise robbery, rape and murder, because you think that only evil nasty fun-hating fascists want to restrict people's freedom to act like a cross between spoiled children and wild animals.

    But if I did, I'd be even more of a shit-for-brains than you are.

    Oh, one other thing - it's "Mussolini". And "tenet".

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  6. Re:Or like an actual PARENT by Smidge204 · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    On the other side of the coin, getting a basic education and/or job skill certainly does not prevent anyone from "succeeding" either.

    I put succeeding in quotes because it's an amazingly subjective term. In MY opinion, a successful person is one who manages to keep a roof over his head and food on the table in a manner that such basic needs are not constantly the most pressing concerns. Success is not necessarily measured by tax bracket or ability to link to dictionaries.

    But what you are implying is that, somehow, learning something - anything - is actually a BARRIER to success. You, sir, are a fuckwit.
    =Smidge=