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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 live in the Dallas area, although I wasn't born or raised here. I don't think this is a reason to be ashamed of Dallas, just the Dallas ISD. The crap that the DISD board and administration pulls never ceases to amaze me.
"To do anything that suggested a taste for solitude, even to go for a walk by yourself, was always slightly dangerous. There was a word for it in Newspeak: ownlife..." --1984 by George Orwell
As a native Texan, born in the Dallas area, let me tell you, Deep Ellum went to shit about 5 years ago. The music scene has died immensely with no-smoking indoors, crime rates have gone up (my mother recently had her Explorer broken into while she was working at Bar of Soap) and the people are just idiots.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Fortunately, Congress doesn't get to legislate Maxwell's equations, and homebrew GPS jammers are within the reach of hardhackers.
I'm sure outlawing GPS jammers will prove as effective as outlawing guns and heroin has.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
Lots of these kids have 'rents who just can't pay attention to what their kids are doing, often 'cause their own lives are too messed up to even think about sorting out their kids. Find a study on truant kids-the usual risk factors boil down to socio-economics, which usual doesn't help with parenting.
Other parents just don't care if their kids are missing school-for whatever reason-according to the studies. Dept. of Ed table
open source modern art: laser taggi
I find the irony palpable. The comment is like straight out of 1984; Mr Leis apparently seems to think there's some difference between 'Big Brother' and 'a device that connects you to a buddy who wants to keep you safe and help you graduate'.
To quote the end of 1984:
He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn
what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless
misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast!
Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all
right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won
the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.
Strange... I could have sworn I replied to the AC. Maybe it got intercepted by the timer? Didn't get an error thought...
Anyway, the reply I thought I made went along these lines: I do agree with the adage in principle. It's called discipline. It does not have to take the form of physical punishment but can we agree that discipline in general is a good thing? The gist of the adage is that teaching your kid how to behave early in life, when the consequences aren't so grave, will save him/her (and possibly a lot of other people) a good amount of grief.
I honestly think that's a pretty good principle.
=Smidge=