Family Life

01.13.11 | Sarah Harnisch

 Court has become a deterrant instead of detention for some north Texas students. It's because 22 districts across the northern part of the state have been issueing tickets-- some, misdemeanors-- instead of detentions. The social and economic group Texas Appleseed collected 5 years of data and found young kids-- including a 6-year-old in Dallas- recieved a Class C Misdemeanor for disrupting class. Another got a ticket for leaving school early; a third, for starting a schoolyard brawl that did not include weapons. Over the course of 5 years, 12-hundred elementary school kids got tickets. The schools say it's a perfectly acceptable way to curtail behavior. But parents are upset because it sticks with the child's record and can cost as much as 500 dollars.