Do we know where our children are?
1st August 2022 · 0 Comments
The despicable lethal carjacking of Linda Fricke, 73, on March 21, 2022, by four truant teens prompted a backlash against the city government and demands for an immediate stop to marauding juveniles roaming the streets like a pack of wolves preying on innocent people.
“Had they been in school, this crime wouldn’t have happened and Ms. Fricke would be alive,” says Police Superintendent Shaun Williams. “We must do more to help our public schools, the NOPD, and the courts to help enforce truancy laws so that our kids are in school and not out in our streets.”
There is no doubt that parents are responsible for knowing where children are at all times. It seems like everyone involved in education should hold parents accountable. Parents should be notified the first day that their child cuts classes.
Back in the day, if adults saw a child or teen walking around the neighborhood during school hours, they would stop them and say, “Aren’t you supposed to be in school?” They would also report the youth to their parents.
Back then, parents would pull surprise visits to classrooms. You look up, and there is your mother or father or both. Such visits had a way of dispelling any notions of misbehaving in school and definitely banishing any thoughts of skipping school.
The parents of the juveniles who caused Fricke’s death were not called that day about their children skipping school. The four were tried as adults, indicted by a Grand Jury, and face life in prison. They took a life and threw their own lives away for the impulsive act of joy riding.
So, the question remains, do we know where our children are? In the cases of the rampant rise in truancy, obviously not.
The number of children missing classes is unknown because Orleans Parish has no centralized truancy reporting system. Each charter school reports directly to the Louisiana Department of Education, which admitted last week that the truancy data posted on its LouisianaBelieves.com website were not always accurate, according to WWL-TV Eyewitness Reporter David Hammer.
Last week, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell took steps to address truancy, which she says is a “challenging and complicated problem.”
Parents, children, city councilmembers, NOLA-PS Superintendent Dr. Avis Williams, NOPD Police Chief Shaun Ferguson, and others involved in a working group, flanked Cantrell, who called for “all hands on deck” to deal with youth cutting classes, skipping school, or racking up 10 absences, wherein a student is considered a truant.
Last June, NOPD announced that curfew hours for unsupervised juveniles aged 17 and under will be enforced between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, and from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Friday and Saturday. The curfew period lasts through August 31.
Beyond the curfew, NOLA-PS Superintendent Dr. Avis Williams, the first woman to lead the Orleans Parish Public school system, outlined the dangers of truancy, which she defines as missing 10 percent of the school year or 18 attendance days. Pre-K through kindergarteners who are chronically absent may be unable to read proficiently by the third grade and lack math skills. The educator says that sixth graders with poor attendance are 75 percent less likely to graduate.
Williams says truancy is a top priority for her administration, which began on July 12. The superintendent says she will focus on the root causes of truancy. She vows to partner directly with each family. Williams will focus on parental responsibility, supports for the families’ need, students’ access to transportation, and centralized data reporting and sharing, making school more engaging.
Also assessing the root causes of juvenile crime was Orleans Parish Chief Juvenile Court Judge Ranord Darensburg.
“A number of risk factors increase a youth’s chances of becoming an offender. They include poor parenting or a lack of parental supervision, family size, home discord, child maltreatment, poverty and growing up in a neighborhood where drugs, guns and crime are an accepted part of everyday life,” Darensburg told The Uptown Messenger, citing that many parents work in the evenings and can’t provide the supervision their teens need to keep them from engaging in juvenile crimes.
However, Lelia Jacobs Eames’ sage ad-vice may be the best starting point for addressing truancy after working with parents.
“You have to give them a reason to come to school,” Eames, the District 1 Interim School Board member, suggests.
Many New Orleanians, who grew up in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, will tell you that music, the arts and sports were integral parts of their daily school activities and gave them a reason to attend beyond academics.
Back then, instrumental and vocal music was taught in elementary and middle schools. The public school system hosted a citywide music concert, where students from various schools played together in concert at the Municipal Auditorium, and school choirs performed during school events. English teachers produced stage plays, too.
Junior high schools (7th, 8th, and 9th grades) had basketball, volleyball, gymnastics and football teams competing.
Sports are known to build character, camaraderie, discipline, work ethics, sacrifice, and respect for teamwork. The same goes for band participants.
Christopher Herrero, director of bands at Edna Karr High School, says band directors have to be mentors, counselors and social workers.
Kids learn discipline, how to resolve issues, order, and structure, personal skills, respect for one another and leadership. Kids that don’t have stability outside of school gravitate to the band. They view each other as family, the band director explains.
“Bands are a pathway for higher education,” Herrera adds. Each of his students has a college scholarship opportunity.
Drew Crosby, the drum major at Warren Easton, told WWNO Education Reporter Aubri Juhasz, “[There’s] a lot of negative energy in New Orleans going on right now,” Crosby says. “I just feel like [band] makes us feel safe and like a place, we really want to be. The band changed all our lives, honestly.”
Unfortunately, there are no traditional arts or sports programs across the charter school system. Elementary and middle school children could greatly benefit from the character development of arts and sports.
In 2019, a partnership between the New Orleans Recreation Development Commission and the city’s public school district (NORDC/NOLA-PS Collaborative Sports League) attempted to provide middle school students with opportunities to play sports.
Still, there’s no substitute for when junior high schools had gymnasiums, physical education was in the curriculum; elementary and middle schools offered instrumental music classes and concerts, theater performances, and sports, and high schools had vo-tech training courses, sports, and marching bands.
Some students attend school with a dream of attending college. But everyone’s not going to college. From that perspective, offering only academics is objectively failing students.
And here in New Orleans, where arts and sports are integral facets of the culture, not providing standardized arts and sports on site, that could keep students interested in staying in school, means high truancy rates will continue.
This article originally published in the August 1, 2022 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
