On Blaming the Victim, Part II
Part of the problem may be attendance, some students said. Schools are trying out different policies to encourage students to be in class and on time, such as forcing parents to sign in a student who was late the morning before.
They’re trying to fix the attendance policy, but they’re going about it the wrong way,Josh Rivera of Canyon Springs High School said.The requirement to have parents sign in late students, for example, encouraged students to just skip the entire period, because the penalties were less harsh that way.
For the students with chronic truancies, however, students thought it was about time their peers answered up.
Shouldn’t there be harsher punishment because they’re wasting our time and money?Nick Rattigan of Green Valley High School said.They’re wasting the teachers’ time.
Actually, seeing as how the students are being made to go to class against their will, and the government schools seem unable to give them any reason to go other than the threat of harsher punishment,
it seems to me like it would be more to the point to complain about the teachers wasting the students’ time than vice versa.