Mom, dad risk arrest if child misbehaves

Mobile Press-Register

Monday, January 15, 2007
By RENA HAVNER
Staff Reporter
Bayou La Batre parents can now be arrested and fined $100 if their children misbehave in school or have excessive unexcused absences, according to a recently passed city ordinance.

State education officials say Bayou La Batre is the only municipality in Alabama to have such a policy.

To that, Bayou La Batre Mayor Stan Wright said: "Shame on all the other cities."

The ordinance applies to about 3,000 students enrolled at the four Mobile County public schools that are inside the city's limits: Booth Elementary, Dixon Elementary, Alba Middle and Alma Bryant High.

Wright said it's up to a principal's discretion to determine when legal action is warranted. He said principals at the four schools now have forms in their offices, requesting what is known as a citizen's arrest.

From there, a police officer would arrest the parent, who could avoid actual jail time by putting up $500 bail, Wright said. The case would eventually go to municipal court.

"Right now, we're just not seeing parents supporting the discipline that's going on in schools," Collier said. "Twenty years ago, when you got in trouble at school, you got a second dose of it when you got home. That's not happening anymore.

In Bayou La Batre, action can now be quicker, he said, adding that the city plans to arrest the parents as soon as students have five unexcused absences or the principal reports that a child is being too unruly.

"If the student misses another five days, we'll arrest (the parent) again," Wright said. "We're going to prosecute them every time they mess up."

The ordinance states that parents or guardians who fail to have a child enrolled or regularly attending school is guilty of a misdemeanor, as are parents who "fail to compel the child to properly conduct himself or herself ... in accordance with the written policy on school behavior." Those parents can be fined up to $100 and sentenced to hard labor for the city for up to 90 days.

Wright said the four schools have sent copies of the ordinance home for all parents to sign, saying they have seen it.

"We're going to enforce it as soon as we get the first warrant signed," Wright said. "We're waiting on them."
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And there you have it folks...schools have become nothing more than an additional weapon of the state against the family unit.

principals at the four schools now have forms in their offices, requesting what is known as a citizen's arrest.

Future headline for the next story in this series:
"Principal gets ass kicked by parent who got a gut-full of state meddling"

"Right now, we're just not seeing parents supporting the discipline that's going on in schools," Collier said. "Twenty years ago, when you got in trouble at school, you got a second dose of it when you got home. That's not happening anymore.

Translation - Many parents no longer engage in barbaric corporal punishment and we are going to pass a law that says they have to beat the snot out of their children.

Wright said the four schools have sent copies of the ordinance home for all parents to sign, saying they have seen it.

"We're going to enforce it as soon as we get the first warrant signed," Wright said. "We're waiting on them."

He sounds like he wishes he was a cop instead of a city councilman. He is just a little too eager to arrest someone if you ask me. I genuinely hope he meets up with a red-neck, deep-country shrimper who hands him the worst ass whoppin' he's ever had. I know I shouldn't wish that....but I do just the same. Maybe it will teach him to mind his own damn business.