Missed Parent-Teachers Conferences Could Result in Jail Time for Parents
by Honey Berk
Oct 22nd 2010 1:12PM
There have been plenty of reports about parents being jailed when their kids miss school, but now parents also may be locked up for their own absences -- from parent-teacher conferences.
Michigan prosecutor Kim Worthy is pushing for a new law that would require parents to attend at least one conference per year or face three days of jail time, the Detroit News reports.
Though she has started presenting her plan at the city level, Worthy staffers tell the News she is trying for a statewide mandate. Either way, the proposed law would be the first of its kind in the country.
In responding to an accusation by "Good Morning America" anchor George Stephanopoulos that her plan sounds like "the nanny state on steroids," Worthy cites the fact that the government already regulates many issues involving children and their well-being.
"A lot of people say that we shouldn't legislate morality, but we already do," Worthy tells "Good Morning America." "We legislate for children specifically that they have to be in car seats. We legislate that parents have to send their children to school if they're 6 to 15 years old. And, here in Michigan, you can go to jail for up to 30 days ... if you don't send your children to school ... So, we legislate all kinds of things already when it comes to children."
The proposed law is but one facet of a comprehensive package her office has put together, and one that is strictly targeted to repeat offenders, Worthy tells "Good Morning America."
"It's not like you miss one and you go jail -- that's not it at all," she says. "You schedule it; you have up to three opportunities to schedule your conferences at your convenience -- night, afternoons and midnight for parents who work."
In addition, there are some exemptions to the plan: parents of children who are doing well in school, those who have health issues that render them unable to travel to school and those who are "actively engaged" with their child's teachers through e-mail, phone calls or letters, the News reports. There is also a plan for intervention services that would kick in before the mandate for jail time.
"We have to find any means necessary to get parents involved," Worthy told the Detroit City Council, the News reports. "We have to start talking about prevention ... Some children don't have a chance the day they are born."
Wayne County Commissioner Laura Cox tells the News she thinks Worthy's intentions are admirable, but that the prospect of jailing parents is "inappropriate on a lot of levels."
Kevin McNamara, another colleague, tells the newspaper he fears the law would become a "tattletale version of pin the tail on the bad parent."
And one Livonia Public Schools board member tells the News: "You can't legislate parental involvement. If the law forces parents to go, what will it do other than fill up a room with parents who don't want to be there?"
But Worthy counters these arguments by drawing a link between parental involvement and youth crime.
"... We're seeing students as young as 10, 11, 12, 13 committing the most violent crimes, and guess what we find out?" she tells "Good Morning America." "They're not in school, they don't have parental supervision and that parent has not been up to that school. And so, again, this is but one in a series of things that we want to try introduce that will go right to parental responsibilities. And, ultimately, if our children are in school and doing well, they are not out doing crimes."