Judge sends honor student to jail for missing school

[lookingfortruth]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/05/26/judge-sends-honor-student-to-jail-for-missing-school/


A Houston-area teenager has been jailed and fined for missing school by a judge who hopes to make an example of her. 17-year-old Diane Tran is working two jobs while taking advanced placement and dual credit courses at Willis High School in Willis, Texas. Some mornings, she is simply too exhausted to make it to school on time. Some days she misses classes altogether.


___________________________________________________________________________


Moral of the story: We must fill those for Profit Juvenile detention centers.

This girl should be given some compassion and help NOT treated like this.

[CreekDog]

1. Jail is not the answer, even if punishment or correction is needed

come on. jail is to protect the rest of us --well, i don't need protection from her.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

10. Parents need to be responsible

she is a child? Why punish the child!

[rocktivity]

25. It looks like both her parents are deadbeats

they divorced and moved away -- which, since she and her older sister are under age 18, is a crime.


rocktivity

[treestar]

62. Agreed, the parents are the ones the authorities should look for

And the child should be taken in under Child Protective Services, and put in foster care.

Also how are minors subject to jail for truancy? Is that the law in Texas? We need to know what the charge was. A juvenile is considered "delinquent" not criminal, and if she violated any such law, the penalty would not be adult jail. That's a "status violation" - something that is not criminal for an adult.

We are missing huge chunks of the story here - the charge, the law of Texas, and probably a lot of facts.

[cali]

19. obviously, no correction or punishment is needed here at all.

[exboyfil]

2. They would love me in Texas

I pulled my daughter out more than once this year so that she could prepare for a test. I have absolutely no regret doing it. She should not be treated as a child as a 10th grader, and if you are going to give 4 tests in a day - then we are going to do what we need to do as well. I am so thankful that half her schedule next year are college classes.

For heaven's sake lets get this girl some help and not thrust another burden on her. Truancy laws for 17 year olds don't make sense anyway, and I am glad we don't have them in our state.

[dkf]

3. OMG this girl's biggest problems is that she is too freaking responsible taking on everyone else's

needs before her own.

She should be given a medal for trying to keep up with the crap left to her by the so called adults. This pisses me off so bad. I am LIVID.

[cali]

4. wow. aside from being a cruel fucking asswipe piece of dogshit

that judge is stupid beyond belief.

Make an example of her? What the fuck. She's an honor student taking AP classes, living on her own, helping support her brother who is in college and her younger sister, abandoned by her parents. She works a full time and a part time job, and fuckwad judge fines her $100 and sends her to jail.

I wish I had enough money to send her some.

[Honeycombe8]

5. The school had to have turned her in for criminal action. How awful.

That judge, and the school official who turned her in, should be horse whipped. This is outrageous.

[rocktivity]

24. The school should have turned her parents in for abandonment

directed Tran and her sister to foster care, and let the college-aged older brother fend for himself.


rocktivity

[Honeycombe8]

53. True enough! nt

[Initech]

6. WTF!!! For profit prisons are the symptom of a sick society.

[cali]

30. this has absolutely zip to do with for profit prisons.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

7. The jails would be full in our school system

where are the parents?

[cali]

12. they divorced and both moved away

Diane is living with the family who owns the wedding business she works for and her younger sister is living with relatives in the Houston area.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

13. Terrible situation

[rocktivity]

23. The parents BOTH moved away leaving two MINOR children behind?

The authorities should have done something about this LONG ago!


rocktivity

[LisaL]

32. ITA. There are many divorced people in this country.

Divorce shouldn't be a reason to leave minor children behind.

[rocktivity]

58. And there are plenty of divorced parents who support their minor children

Last edited Mon Jul 30, 2018, 03:39 PM - Edit history (1)

whether they live with them or not, and more to the point, whether they love them or not.

Divorce is no reason to just stop supporting them. If it's not a crime per se, it ought to be.


rocktivity

[txoctodem]

42. They move away

but maybe made provisions for her and her sister before they left? Thought so.

[LisaL]

44. If they made provisions, why is she working a full time job and a part time job?

To support herself and her two siblings?

[cali]

8. If you want to help, here's a site raising money for her

http://helpdianetran.com/

[magical thyme]

20. looks like they've already raised $3K+ for her and her family

Sometimes something good comes out of something evil. Now hopefully Texas will do something about that asshole judge and the school district.

[dkf]

29. Done.

Thanks...so glad to see she is getting help.

[SemperEadem]

37. Just donated. Glad to see others who feel she's getting

horrible treatment. I hope this judge can successfully shamed for this.

[Sabriel]

71. Up to $30,000 now!

Wow. People are amazing.

[bhikkhu]

9. One of those "there must be more to the story" headlines

if it sounds too ridiculous to be true, most likely the more important parts are in the fine print or what is left out entirely.

[cali]

14. here's an idea: read the stories and listen to the newscasts

you are wrong.

[hughee99]

27. Apparently, she's been late or missing often enough that a judge

has already warned her, but why would any of those details be worth putting in the article.

I'm not sticking up for the judge here, but it's not like she missed A DAY of school. Perhaps the judge is hoping to get her to realize she can't do this on her own and that she needs to get help. Perhaps the judge is sending a message to those around her that they're putting too much on her shoulders. Perhaps the judge is just a total asshole.

Like the story not long ago about the woman in SC that was upset that her assistance payments were done on a BoA check card and that it was 50 miles to the nearest BOA, so she had to pay a lot of third party fees to access the money. The story was written to direct the user to a predetermined conclusion. It was never mentioned that there were 5 BoA branches or ATM's within 6 miles of her.

The only question is, is this sloppy journalism (laziness), propaganda (cherry picking facts to support a specific conclusion) or an editorial hatched job where the writer put all of the relevant info into the article only to have some editor chop it down to X words.

[cali]

31. you apparently don't read carefully. That is in every fucking article on this

including the one linked in the OP.

And clearly the judge is a fucking moron.

Really, all you have to do is not be lazy and read the articles on this and watch the newscasts.

[hughee99]

43. In the article linked to, please link where it specifically mentions

how many times she was late already. It does say this has happened before, and that she has been warned, but NO details. Was she warned last week and hasn't had time to do anything about it? Was she warned last fall and hasn't tried or been able to get help? Really, all you have to do is not be lazy and read the article before you call someone else lazy for not reading the article.

[cali]

45. there's a shitload of articles with lots of detail, just a click away, dear.

[hughee99]

49. I don't need to, it's in the article linked to in the OP, right?

"That is in every fucking article on this including the one linked in the OP. "

Okay, so where is it?

[rocktivity]

34. The judge shouldn't have ALLOWED her to keep doing it on her own given her circumstances

Last edited Sun May 27, 2012, 06:08 PM - Edit history (3)

at least not in her capacity as a minor.

Has the judge ever heard of child protective services? As far as I'm concerned, he's guilty of endangering her and her younger sister's welfare.


rocktivity

[hughee99]

48. Given that this would seem to be the logical thing to do,

I wonder why this was not mentioned once in the article.

[CreekDog]

41. Explain what law saw that a 17 year old missing school gets jail time?

and what are the penalties (and to WHOM) of not complying with it?

or did you just pull the it's okay, she was warned, thing out of thin air and not the thinking place?

[hughee99]

47. Truancy is the law,

and I just pulled the "the article isn't giving all the information necessary to make an informed opinion".

How many times and for how long was she warned. What steps did she attempt to take to resolve the situation? Why weren't those steps successful? What other steps can be taken to resolve the issue? Oddly enough, the PR this gets will likely be the reason the situation gets resolved. Someone will step up and help when they wouldn't have if this remained an obscure truancy case.


You know what? Fuck it, the judge is an asshole. I've reached the conclusion the writer wanted me to because the real story isn't the girl, it's the asshole judge.

[lookingfortruth]

52. Truancy law in Texas apply to Anyone UNDER 16

The girl is 17

[Mariana]

57. That's not true.

Texas requires school attendance until 18 or graduation, whichever comes first.

[treestar]

66. Is there a drop out procedure?

I remember growing up, in my state, that one could quit school if one chose at 16. Don't know if you needed parental permission. Probably had to be done formally in some way. This could have changed a lot by now. But Texas law I could see being lenient. I was thinking she could quit, work and then go for a GED. They seem to be a family with a plan. Like having the older brother get through college and get a higher paying job sooner and then put the girls through school.

[Mariana]

70. No, not really.

They have to attend school until they're 18, or until they graduate. The only way around it is for the parent to withdraw the kid for "homeschooling" (wink wink). Technically, homeschooled students are required to follow the mandatory attendance laws, but there is zero oversight, so kids can effectively drop out that way.

[treestar]

60. Right there you show us there is something we don't know

What law was applied? We're all judging the judge and the judge maybe just applied the law - maybe the law is the problem and this is an unintended consequence of that law. We just don't know. All we have is a pre-disposition and a pre-determined conclusion.

[CreekDog]

76. the law has obligations for parents and for children and the judge couldn't have looked at the law

without noticing both parts.

given that her parents basically abandoned their family, the judge is negligent in doing what he did.

if he's going to be that clueless, what's the point of having a judge do the job? a form and a computer could do what he did, or maybe even a computer could have done a better job.

remember he's a "judge", but he's shown no sensible judgement.

[treestar]

77. It could be all he had before him was the question of

attending school or not.

There ought to be a guardianship for the girl and her younger sister. That might be a different procedure that arises a different way.

[Puregonzo1188]

55. How exactly does sending a 17 year-old to jail send the message that "she can't do this on her

and that she needs to get help." How does sending her to jail send the message "to those around her that they're putting too much on her shoulders."


Seriously I don't see how being sent to jail would communicate any of those things to a 17 year old girl whose been abandoned by her parents, working two jobs to support herself and her brother, and all while taking AP classes. So please enlighten me.

[hughee99]

75. Perhaps up until now she's been telling her family

she can handle it, and they've been blindly believing her. Now they can't. She has a brother she's supporting that's in college. She has parents living in different states. Now everyone is aware of the situation if they weren't before. Were her parents or brother aware of how much she was struggling? I can't tell from the article, but I can guarantee you they are aware now.

[COLGATE4]

56. I read (in another artcicle) that the "Judge"

is actually a Justice of the Peace (J.P.). Calling a J.P. "Judge" is like calling the orderly that empties your bedpan "Doctor". Just sayin'...

[treestar]

59. Yes, to a pre-determined conclusion

This has happened to many times that it's strange there are still people willing to jump to that conclusion immediately.

[NYC_SKP]

11. *** Call the Judge *** (contact information inside)

Justice of the Peace Precinct 1

Judge Lanny Moriarty





Willis Location

300 S. Danville St

Willis, TX 77378

[phone] Office

[phone] Fax

Montgomery Location

19380 Highway 105 West, Ste 507

Montgomery, TX 77356

[phone] Office

[phone] Fax

Office Hours

(Except for Official County Holidays)

Monday - Thursday

7:30 AM - 5:30 PM

http://www.mctx.org/courts/justices_of_the_peace/justice_of_the_peace_pct_1/index.html

`

`

`

[CreekDog]

39. The judge doesn't understand his own law --it's like sending the child to jail for child abandonment

i hope many here contact the judge and his jurisdiction to see that he reverses his harmful mistake.

[malaise]

15. Does he have shares in the private prison industry

This is bullshit

[cali]

17. this is clearly not about that. She was sent to jail for 24 hours.

He's just a heartless, stupid fuckwad.

[cynatnite]

16. Jail's not the answer, but she really needs to lighten her load. n/t

[cali]

18. She's a junior in hs. she needs it lightened for her.

[SemperEadem]

38. exactly--she's a minor

not a legal adult, those of whom it would seem are responsible for her and her siblings have gotten off scott free.

her parents should have lightened her load for her so she can be a high school junior, enjoying life as a high school junior, not a 40 yr old adult with responsibilities.

[rocktivity]

21. Giving up the full time job is the right answer

There's no reason for being too tired to go to school. It isn't as though she's supporting herself...oops...

A reporter from Houston’s KHOU relayed to the judge that Tran is working to support an older brother who attends Texas A&M University and a younger sister. Her parents divorced “out of the blue” last year and both moved away, her mother to Georgia, leaving the high schooler on her own in Willis. She is working part time at a wedding venue and full time at a dry cleaning business just to stay afloat.

Tran's parents are the ones who should be in jail -- are the authorities at least TRYING to track them down for child abandonment? At the very least, the older brother should put off college and work full time until she finishes high school. Tran and her younger sister should be should getting public aid, even if it means foster care.


rocktivity

[txoctodem]

26. Giving up one or both jobs...

Good answer. If I were a betting person I'd lay odds that there is more to this story than meets the eye. I've know several people who have persuaded parents (divorced or not) to let them stay with friends or family until they finish high school 'with their friends'. Surely agree that brother in A&M should at least be responsible for himself and not expect $$ from a younger sibling! Maybe the judge knows more background and is really trying to get her attention for her own good--even though sending her to jail does seem a little extreme.

[cali]

33. no, the judge didn't know shit. The reporter informed him of the back story.

and how the fuck so many people in this thread can defend the judge is beyond me. Extreme? It's fucking moronic. and cruel. the kid should be lauded not punished. YOU try getting honor roll grades while taking AP courses and working two jobs.

[treestar]

65. Exactly, the older brother is of age

Maybe the three of them figured it's better to get him out making bigger money sooner? At any rate, the minors should not have to be burdened with that.

[txoctodem]

22. jail for honors student

Being a judge implies the ability to actually judge -- between reasonable and unreasonable causes behind actions -- Doesn't look like this judge is really able to do this (surely hope he's not a Dem...) On the other hand, perhaps the student is trying to do more than is reasonable and she may need to get her priorities in order -- and at her age her educations needs to be in 1st place even if reasons for all the hours working seem to be praiseworthy.

[MrScorpio]

28. So the answer for a student who misses school is to send her to jail...

So that she'll miss more school.

[Lars39]

35. I wonder if they've thought of emancipation for the brother that's at college?

It would then allow him to perhaps receive more financial help, thus allowing her to quit one of her jobs.

[cali]

36. why would he need emancipation? He's a college student. He's over 18

I think some of this may be cultural.

[Lars39]

46. Because student loans are based on a studen't age...up to age 25, iirc.

Currently financial institutions expect parents to support a student until that age.

[treestar]

67. Yep and the parents have abandoned him as such, too

So he should be eligible without regard to their income.

[LeftishBrit]

40. Apart from anything else...

I thought that the legal schooling leaving age in the USA was 16 as in the UK? How is she breaking the law if she misses school at 17.

It's a great pity that her education and probably health are being affected by her not having proper family support and having to take two jobs, but that is hardly a crime on her part!

[PavePusher]

50. One wonders what this fuckwad judge does for dessert....

Kick puppies? Shake babies? Punch old ladies in the face?

If he was "trying to send a message", as several people above have claimed, he is completely inept and needs a cactus enema.

[treestar]

69. Yes, the right kid to use for that would be

the one who just skips school and plays games or does drugs all day. This is exactly the wrong student. Maybe it's racism. I'd like to see his record for finding other students guilty.

[MrYikes]

51. People don't be so upset...

this is Texas we're talking about, right?

[Initech]

54. Why is this poor woman in jail but Charles and David Koch aren't?

[cali]

63. non-sequitur

really, one has nothing to do with the other. And what would sending the Koch brothers to jail for 24 hours accomplish anyway?

[Initech]

68. I know it is but what I'm getting at is the real criminals are allowed to walk free.

And I wouldn't send the Koch roaches to jail for 24 hours - they have essentially committed treason and need to be punished severely for it, and someone who works 2 jobs *AND* going to school full time is being put in jail - that does not make a whole lot of sense.

[treestar]

61. that's what I was thinking. WTH is the law in Texas that

the parents can just abandon this minor child? This is a minor child who has been abandoned. Along with the younger siblings? There's an older sibling. But the first thing they should do is put her in foster care (relatives would qualify) and then go after the parents.

Is there a procedure for quitting school? A state like Texas would predictably have a lenient law for that and the age is probably 16, or less than her age of 17. She could go through that procedure and try for a GED since it seems she has permission to work and feels she needs to (she has no duty to help the older sibling at college).

[LisaL]

72. She doesn't want to quit school.

Especially considering she wants to become a doctor.

[treestar]

78. How to do that while working one and a half jobs

It seems clear she has taken on too much. There are only so many hours in a day. Though maybe she's brilliant enough not to have to go to class, as it appears she still has good grades.

Still, enough is enough. The parents ought to be doing something so that she doesn't have to work, or even the state, as a child abandoned by parents.

[rocktivity]

81. Her criminal deadbeat parents should be billed

for the housing assistance and/or foster care Diane and her sister need. She needs to lose that full-time job, and her brother will have to start paying his own bills, even if it means going to college part-time.


rocktivity

[PavePusher]

74. Instead of making assumptions and regional bigotry insinuations...

you could actually look these things up. This is, after all, the internet.

I'll do the first half of the job for you: http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/ED/htm/ED.25.htm

[treestar]

79. Do you have to be that sensitive about "regional bigotry?"

I am figuring the Texas laws are lenient. And no you haven't helped with that long link. What does it say about the question at hand?

I can criticize the state of Texas if I have reason to believe, as this article suggests, that it is allowing for this to happen. Where is Child Protective Services?

That judge certainly had no mercy. He applied his tiny part of the law without any consideration of the fact there is 17 year old with no parents supporting her. And a younger sister.

Texas is not immune from criticism - it doesn't work to just yell "regional bigotry" in response to any criticism.

[PavePusher]

80. Yes, I do.

It is just as vile, fuck-tarded and ignorant as any racial, sexual, religous, national or cultural bigotry, and I will call it out every time I see it.

You didn't make "criticisms". You made accusations by insinuation, without any facts or evidence in support, against an entire state, many of whose residents are on your side.

Clear your mind of the hate.

[PavePusher]

73. Regional bigotry?

Really not helpful.

[JonLP24]

64. I never heard of that

especially of students over 16.