The daytime curfew Rick mentions sounds simple enough, but I fear it will limit “good kids” from participating in some outstanding programs during the school day.
• RISD’s Professional Internship Program, aka PIP, enables high-achieving high school seniors to depart school for hours at a time to train as interns in companies all over the metroplex.
• Richardson Youth Leadership, an RISD program for juniors, prepares students for leadership in their school and community by enabling them to tour various parts of the city, learning how things work.
• Mu Alpha Theta, the math honor society, fosters tutoring programs where high school math whizzes travel to various elementary schools to mentor kids.
• Peer Helpers create plays and other performances that teach youngsters the downward spiral brought on by alcohol, drugs, and other bad choices. Seniors who’ve met their course requirements depart the school early to go to jobs or care for younger siblings.
Even the Student Advisory Council (SAC) leaves school for various programs, including the occasional lunch with the principal at Back Country BBQ. These programs are highly valuable in enriching students, and allowing students to leave the building during the school day is important to their success.
The proposed ordinance provides that school-sponsored programs are exempt, but I fear that practically, the school will avoid the hassle and reign the students in. Schools usually prefer to discontinue a program than worry about a kid who can’t find his note of excuse when pulled over by the cops. It would only take one police cruiser pulling up to the school with the Student Council president in handcuffs before the risk-averse administrators would shut those programs down.
I appreciate the idea of scooping up truant students and taking them back to class, but that’s already happening. I’d rather give police more manpower to handle true truants than create a world where only the kids who behave themselves are afraid to go out in the daytime.
