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.'"

Comments

lawl i'm annonymous

[Anonymous Coward]

lawl first

Re:I live in Dallas

[DaveV1.0]

I guess you think it is better that the kids be allowed to skip school, not get an education, and end up working mcjobs or worse as gang-bangers, thieves, drug dealers, or other criminals. Or, do you think they will make anything else of themselves after they "snooze until 2 p.m. before strolling into school" and falling falling so far behind they fail most of their classes.

Maybe you this:

Nearly one-third of American students drop out of school, and Dallas has the seventh-worst graduation rate among large school districts, according to a study released in April by Americaâ(TM)s Promise Alliance, founded by Colin L. Powell, the former secretary of state.

Maybe you missed the part where Pacheco could have been sent to juvenile detention and how his mother is glad he has to do this.

Hey, I know, maybe the truth is that you are worried that you won't have anyone to wait on you at McDonald's, mow your lawn, and do the rest of the shit jobs you don't want to do.

Or, maybe it is that you just can't wait to pay higher taxes to support the ignorant.

Yes, you are ashamed of your city because you believe it is better to let ignorant, selfish, lazy children grow up to be ignorant, selfish, lazy adults who are a burden to the rest of society.

You are a dumb-ass.

Same old bullshit

[Anonymous Coward]

At this point the parents have already proven out to be useless wastes of space. and most likely only one is even there (or alive). But, please, keep trotting out that "solution" over and over and expecting a different result like a mental case.

Not everyone grows up middle class, you know.

And I love the "just toss them out of school" crowd. OK. Then what? You think they just vanish? You think the problem just goes away at this point. No. Next they are mugging you or killing you, or raping your mothers, wives and daughters for kicks, or just sponging off the government teat. What ratio of "working citizens" to "useless leeches" do you think any system can tolerate before it breaks?

You all sound like a pack of pampered, bourgeois fools. Typical geeks who think they know everything but actually know so very little.

Re:I live in Dallas

[DaveV1.0]

No, you fucking dip-shit. They are not tagging all the students and tracking their every move. Maybe you should learn to fucking read.

They are tagging the once that are failing to live up to their civic responsibilities and fallow the law.

Re:Sounds about right

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow. Never has that Franklin quote been more misapplied. You unthinking geeks toss out random quotes and you think you are being oh so deep. These bracelets are an alternative to being incarcerated, you utter and complete dumb shit.

Freedom includes the right to screw up. They already screwed up, you miserable, intolerable vacuum head. We're in the punishment phase at this point, you bottomless well of complete idiocy. So we just give them freedom to continue screwing up? And when it gets to the point where they and just wandering the streets and catch a sight of your wife or daughter with rape on their mind, do we grant them that right to screw up, too, you astronomically vast assclown?

Trying to protect people from themselves is the worst kind of tyranny. They aren't. They are trying to protect the rest of us from those useless little fuckheads you're so enamored with. Maybe the little bad boys turn you on?

I only wish more people would realize this. I only wish less people were as pig ignorant as you and actually RTFM and try to understand what the issues is a little better. Or at least try to project into the future beyond the tip of your foreskin.

Love your handle: Archangel Michael. Is it supposed to be ironic? Are you some religious tool who wants to forgive every criminal everything no matter how much the criminals laugh at you and go right on being criminals, you fucking enabler?

Re:Or like an actual PARENT

[Anonymous Coward]

What's really absurd is your point of view.