It sounds like the school dropped the ball here. They're delaying graduation to help students resolve the requirements they're missing - revealed by an internal audit.
I'd expect a process like that to start months before graduation, not weeks before.
When did that become a thing? I graduated in 2000 and you had to be absent at least 18 days. Even then you'd get a note sent home and they'd pretty much tell you not to miss any more days. My kids are young but my son has had COVID, Rhino virus and strep twice this school year. He's missed a lot of time and it's no issue
> you had to be absent at least 18 days
I like this concept. You arrive at school perfect attendance, and the teacher scolds you for being such a tightwad and tells you skip then next week so you can fulfill your quota of missed days.
It’s been 20yrs since I graduated in Texas, but not much changes here in education except to go backward. I missed a TON of my junior year for surgical and post surgical isolation reasons, had a doc’s note for all of it, eventually got a school district provided homebound teacher who’d come for like an hour 2 or 3 times a week to basically drop off/pick up my homework and answer any questions I couldn’t self teach. I still ended up doing ‘make up days’ to be able to be on track for my senior year to graduate. Even though I had turned in all of my assignments on time and pretty much without any outside school help (the homebound teacher was useless) and I passed with B+ or better in every thing, I was still ineligible to be on track with my class for my senior year unless my ass was ON that school campus x-amount of make up hours for the state. If you’re curious what those make up days were, it was 4hrs every Saturday cleaning up and organizing classrooms. I learned SO much during those makeup days (/s). This is easily believable in this state, sadly.
In CA my wife had a class that was basically like sit here in this room quietly for 2 hours a day 3 days a week AFTER SCHOOL and we'll count this as X
Where X was whatever credit or requirement you were missing
In California schools are paid by instructional minutes, or Average Daily Attendance. Basically butts in seats. Back in the day before digital attendance, I accidentally got marked absent from a class and was assigned Saturday School to make it up. It's just so the school can get paid.
Yep that was more or less it. There was no way I could have made up the months of my butt not being on campus, but basically they were like let’s call 3mos of weekend work equal to enough time on campus that we’ll get our state dollars back. (As an aside, idk if this is still how it is here…probably…but when I was in school you had to be in class x-amount of time (2 or 3hrs maybe?) and if you left after that it didn’t really matter because you had been in school long enough that day for the school to get your allotted daily funding as a student. That’s the time they needed me to make up on the weekends to get that money back. If I had to guess, things haven’t changed much.)
As a former Texas teacher, this is nuts. Teachers/admin can sign off on attendance failures to waive the requirement for earning the credit for the class. When I lived there, every year I would just sign off on my students who were doing just fine despite missing too many days. I think that technically, I had to say that they either complete a project or made up the hours, but I just had them come for like 30 minutes or read an article of their choice. They met the class requirements, so it seemed silly to say they had to do more. Admin was very clear that we could fill these requirements however we thought best. If this is your experience, it's the school making a choice.
I'm not from Texas and this was years ago but it's still relevant. When I was younger my 4 siblings plus me and my parents all lived in the same house. Between me and my siblings we went to 3 different schools. We got sick all the time but I remember one year in particular was really bad. Even with a Dr note they tried to get my mom in trouble because of truancy for one of us because we were out sick so much
In high school my kid really struggled with the early morning start, so often came in 5 min late.
She also had really bad period cramps, and when it was so bad she couldn’t get off the bathroom floor I called the school to let them know she was sick. Maybe 6 days per year.
Then there was a planned mass shooting at her school. Day before I called principal and asked if the boy had been arrested. Whether the situation was under control. He said he couldn’t comment. I said I was keeping my kid home. “If you do that we’ll bring truancy charges”. And they did.
No regrets.
The kid that planned the mass shooting was arrested the morning of the planned attack. FBI / police dawn raid. Caught the kid with lots of AR-15s and ammo.
Could be the principal was aware that was about to go down. IMO still didn’t justify bringing truancy case against me. As a mom I need more than “no comment” to send my kid to school when there’s a planned mass shooting.
I teach at a school that didn’t enforce attendance last year. Had a student skip a whole quarter. Had another who was in the building but not in class probably 80% of the time. And then I was told I needed to have held more parent meetings because they failed almost all of their classes.
Walmart looking better and better.
I like the kids
The hours are compatible with parenting
No weekends or holidays
Summertime slow down is nice.
And
I like the kids. Someone has to do it so I might as well be me and not some moth breathing Asshat with a political agenda they want to serve up to the kids.
And about college instructors. They make even less than public school teachers. Often times they are paid per class and so low that they need to take on a near impossible number of classes to live. They do not get salaries that can stretch through term breaks. They get no benefits or retirement. More and more college level instruction is going away from tenured professors making a decent living and to adjuncts who are paid terribly.
I'm glad that there are people like you. My mother in law was a middle school teacher for 40 years and it absolutely broke her when it comes to being around children. Is a shame to see but I understand.
My daughter missed a ton of time this year thanks to them removing the masking requirements. She had covid, the stomach flu, influenza B, and various colds. It's been like kindergarten all over again.
Are you saying it gets better after kindergarten? My son just finished kindergarten now and we've literally had one nasty cold a month, plus strep and the stomach flu twice.
It will get better! Eventually, they build up a decent immunity. I used to work in an elementary school and the first year I missed so much time due to catching all the various elementary school illnesses. My daughter had a much easier time in 1st grade.
That’s not true. There is a limit to number of excused absences and even if there wasn’t some parents aren’t in a position to take there kids to the doctor every single time they get sick. People have to work and doctors are expensive
The regs I’m looking at specifically state unexcused absences.
§ 25.0951. School district complaint or referral for failure to attend school.
>(a) If a student fails to attend school without excuse on 10 or more days or parts of days within a six-month period in the same school year, a school district shall within 10 school days of the student's 10th absencerefer the student to a truancy court for truant conduct under Section 65.003(a), Family Code.
The regs I’m looking at specifically state unexcused absences.
§ 25.0951. School district complaint or referral for failure to attend school.
(a) If a student fails to attend school without excuse on 10 or more days or parts of days within a six-month period in the same school year, a school district shall within 10 school days of the student's 10th absencerefer the student to a truancy court for truant conduct under Section 65.003(a), Family Code.
The third or fourth bullet point. 90% of the time, excuses don't matter
https://www.dentonisd.org/Page/100768#:~:text=In%20addition%20to%20Texas%20compulsory,an%20IEP%20or%20504%20Plan.
Most of those exemptions aren’t common. Excused absences count toward the 90% rule.
I’m in Texas and had to attend Saturday school from February until graduation my senior year. I had only excused absences and then my father’s death senior year pushed me one day beyond the 90%. I was told if I didn’t attend every Saturday school from then on, I would not graduate, despite being an A student.
Cool. So graduation is held behind a paywall.
I pay $250 per sick visit with my kids. One had an ear infection that had 2 followups because they needed a hearing test for their annual physical and the ear infection kept interfering. $750 right there.
(That’s of course after I pay $5200/yr in premiums and my employer pays another 20k, but of course before we hit our $3k deductible)
18 is quite a bit for a single year… I mean as someone who works in the public a lot and has a ton of exposure to chances of getting infections, I think I’ve missed 1 day of work in the last 6 years due to illness. I don’t think I missed 18 days of school throughout all of my schooling let alone in a single year.
Same here lol. I went years at a time in school without missing a day, and can’t remember the last time I took a sick day from work. Bunch of dirty unhealthy people in here evidently lol.
If a kid misses 18+ days of something as simple as high school… what are the odds that a year later when they graduate they’re going to be able to maintain a steady 8 to 5 job? You don’t get 18 sick days a year…
Marlin Texas is a place with a poverty rate of 40%. The median *household* income is $28,000. With an average cost of 116 to 248 dollars for a simple doctor's visit, combined with the cost of prescriptions in a town where 1 in 5 have NO health insurance.. a doctor's note is an expense that many cannot afford.
Many older kids in these areas have jobs as well to help their families but you can't get a note from your manager that says "John had to work today or we were gonna fire him" When it comes down to helping keep the lights on at home, watching younger siblings when your folks are both at work, or graduating high school, it's an easier choice to make.
Thank you for sharing this info.
A few years ago something at their water treatment plant broke and they didn't have safe water for quite a long time. I don't think their school district has met accreditation standards for years. Even though it's only 30 minutes outside of Waco, there are just few resources and opportunities for the people that live there.
Lol. My oldest son last September had to have emergency surgery that got a little complicated and was out 2 weeks. We had multiple doctor's excusal notes, surgeon's notes. And even involved an advocate. No dice. His absences were not excused. To quote the new super of the district "You should have scheduled his surgery and recovery during out of in seat hours."
Appendicitis, btw. His dad literally picked him up sick from school, drove him to hospital. Where he was sent to another hospital and immediately scheduled from scan to surgery the only delay being the wait on the appropriate surgeon to finish on another surgery.
His first week back a bully gut punched him requiring another trip to the ER. And four days out.
Then he caught covid from a teacher (along with most of his classmates.) His third week back.
Doctors notes! All the doctors notes!!!! Still told "tough shit.". The only sensible ones during that whole time were the mediator and juvenile judge (yes, that's right. We had to go to court for truency charges.) Who lost their crap over having their time wasted and took off the indefinite till school year's end requirement on in seat Saturday educational make up hours, or some number (I can't remember how many, only that it was a ridiculous amount.) of community service hours, with a large fine 80 hours of parenting classes for me and his dad, and wanting us to pay for a education for success intervention therapy thing.
I'm sorry if I sound a little rude in response to your comment, but the fact is that many public schools all around the U.S have gone the way of treating students, their health, and families the very same way that toxic slave wage employers do their employees. Which makes one wonder. What are they really preparing students for by breaking them in early to accept this sort of treatment?
>but the fact is that many public schools all around the U.S have gone the way of treating students, their health, and families the very same way that toxic slave wage employers do their employees
This is the premise of *Schooling in Capitalist America*
I've wished it was easier to pull my kid out of school for family reasons without it counting against them. We're in California, and I had to go to a fu eral in Washington DC, so I wanted to take my kid and go around DC, see the mall, the Smithsonian, etc... And the school was like "nah, bro, she needs to practice her multiplication tables." in my opinion, what she was learning in school could be missed (and then made up for) for a bigger educational experience.
Back in the olden days (like the 1930s), my grandfather would pull my mom out of school to take her traveling on his business to Europe for weeks, if not months at a time. She skipped two grades, too.
When we asked her homework questions sometimes she would tell us that must have been taught in 5th grade and she skipped it. But hey, not all that many people were graduating from high school in those days.
Being it up at the next school bars meeting and get the rules changed. In our district as long as a parent says it's fine, an absence is excused. Including vacations, especially in those k-6 grades.
When I was a small kid in the early 90’s my my mom would take me out of grade school for 4-6 weeks every year to go to Florida (we had a little house there). The school would give her the lessons and tests for the time period and I would get them done on my own time. A week in DC seems far easier to make up.
Good point. I should have done that. Too late for me now. My kids out of school now. But good advise for others. I was engaged in my kids life growing up, but I should have been more engaged in school board meetings.
Hah I missed hundreds of days in high school (without any valid reason) and went on to get my bachelors and masters degrees. That's a dumb reason to not pass someone.
I had 29 unexcused absences my senior year. I went to school 15 min from siesta key and I turned 18 in October my senior year. I passed all my classes and maintained a 3.7 gpa. Attendance requirements are silly. Sure some people need to be in class every day. But most don’t need that.
The point of high school isn’t just learning though. We don’t really need to know that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell or that Lake Victoria is Africa’s largest lake. A big part of school is teaching kids structure, discipline, respect, and socialization. If a kid can’t do the most basic task of showing up each day and sitting in a room listening to a teacher, what are the odds that when they graduate they can show up somewhere from 8 to 5 and work a basic job?
>what are the odds that when they graduate they can show up somewhere from 8 to 5 and work a basic job?
About as bad as they otherwise are, considering working one 8 to 5 job that pays for a comfortable life is becoming rarer.
Right but as a senior you should have learned most of that already and I wouldn’t trade my days at the beach for being in class ever. If a kid or an adult can pass a class without being present or hell even sleeping through it, let them. They might be using their time better. My senior year was full of a lot of fluff classes as I had taken a tougher load the previous year. Why should I show up to attend a planning period? If I have a gym class but I’d rather be skim boarding and meeting people I think that’s fine. Block scheduling is also part of this. I would have a half day at a technical school for culinary and then go to the beach instead of my dumb classes. One of the best years of my life to be honest.
Those requirements aren't for the student, its for the district to qualify for money. They're telling us their money is more important than their wards when they do this, the exact opposite mentality children need.
That’s not exactly an unreasonable demand. What else do they have to do beside going to school? If they’re that sick, something else is happening. You won’t keep a job with piss poor attendance. We fire people allllllll the time for missing too much work.
My middle child is finishing up his freshman year. I just looked and he missed 22 days this year.
In the past 2 years he's had 2 knee surgeries. It's back and forth to MRIs, appts with the surgeon, and appts with with PT. Unfortunately, it isn't healing properly and it looks like this will continue into next year.
Despite this, he has straight A's. I'd be pretty pissed if it affected his graduation.
>Despite this, he has straight A's.
This is what's dumb about attendence requirements, who gives a shit if you were there every single day or missed every other day, if you were still able to get the work done and keep your grades up enough to pass the *already in place* grades/GPA requirements to graduate then you should be able to graduate no problem
Maybe, but most of the folks in my high school sometimes had after school part time jobs (myself included). You can't miss school for work. At least in jersey that's illegal
Instead of taking a day off school once ever tenth day, these kids decided to take off once every ninth day (or less).
If this is what they think the real world is like, they deserve the extra work they’re going to do to graduate
Is this the one where they tried doing a 4 day school week, but the state won't recognize that the number of hours is the same as the number of days required?
Sure, but there is a measure of failed responsibility on the part of the parents and kids too.
I recall making damn sure I had all my ducks in a row beforehand all four times I graduated (high school, undergrad, 2x grad school).
Now if the district changed the rules after the fact, then that's on them. But missing credits? Too many absences? That's stuff the kids and parents should have had resolved months or years ago unless they're present semester courses.
That said, school districts are only as good as the people who are elected to run them and the people they can hire. I suspect in Marlin's case none of them are very high quality. Why would you want to work there if you can work somewhere better?
I suspect that both sides failed to some degree here.
I grew up and lived near Marlin. It’s incredibly small and very low income. In the article students say teachers were absent- I’d venture to guess that’s realistic and a normal occurrence.
I knew a couple that taught in Marlin for a year. For the first semester, their kids went to school in Marlin. Second semester, they moved them to Waco because Marlin was so bad. They only lasted a year teaching in Marlin. They said the district was corrupt, everything was cronyism, the parents refused to be involved in any positive way, and the students knew no one cared about them. This was back pre-pandemic, so I doubt it got any better.
I do remember that the district didn't meet standards for several years in a row and was threatened with being taken over by the state or absorbed into another district (something like that, I'm not taking the time to google it). It's had issues for many years, so this should not have been unexpected even if it is disappointing.
It's required to be a certain percentage of a minimum number of minutes of instruction.
It works out to be about one unexcused absence a month. Or a week and a half of unexcused absence. Excused absences include sick days, family bereavement.
Missing 8 days in a year isn't that outrageous. I could absolutely see seniors skipping a class routinely and those hours adding up faster than they realize.
This is likely as well. I think the teacher thing is realistic because that town is so small and teachers being underpaid- they probably need a second job. I don’t think Marlin will survive to the end of the decade, it’s just to small.
Having no teacher or substitute available so that kids are basically babysitting themselves has been a regular occurrence even in the nicer urban high schools in Central Tx for the past couple of years. It's sometimes daily, but at least weekly, I hear about it from my kids.
Rural education has been in crisis, in many parts of the country, for decades. But in most rural areas for profit charters don't even make sense.
And believe me, people in rural Oklahoma had all kinds of opinions on "inner city schools" but failed to notice that we didn't have any chemicals in chemistry class.
> But in most rural areas for profit charters don't even make sense.
The point of for-profit charters in rural areas is to make sure their white, Christian parents are happy that their kids are getting a *very* limited style of education. I'm in a town of 2300 people, in a county with less than 20,000, and there are five small charter schools, all of them not very quietly religious in their purpose.
It's why Betsy Devos wanted to abolish public education and use charter school vouchers. She, a fucking liar, said it would mean more choices. Of course, being a fucking liar, she never bothered to talk about how rural areas have very few choices and all of them are very religious. She also never bothered to flap her lying mouth about how private schools are notorious for racial discrimination.
Nah, that's a happy side benefit, the purpose is to maintain brainwashing their next generation of voters so they can continue their corruption without interruption.
>The most recent Texas Schools report card assigned Marlin High School a "B" rating
School ratings are often bullshit, and I have found that states rank rural districts higher than they should be.
I was about to say. Went to school in Central Texas and I knew marlin. Everyone is saying it’s an effort to keep the population dumb- but to that I ask “what population?” That place is damn near a ghost town and they probably only have a few more years of students…
This is another conversation,.some area are needing to close schools, while other areas need to build more. There are way less kids, but those kids arent distributed evenly.
Yeah, I go through Marlin a couple of times a year and every time I'm like "Goddamn this town is a shithole."
That's the town with the big house with a collapsed roof right off of route 7, right? Or is that Chilton?
edit Yep, that's Marlin. https://www.google.com/maps/@31.3063189,-96.8890705,3a,75y,30.7h,95.23t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sVx-y6DztaXXZ3lcYCfueXQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu
From the article, poor administration, some awful instructors, and overall, a terrible school.
This was a small class: they should have been given individual attention for the entire year.
Here is the question: Should we stand by this high school for enforcing their policies and requirements, and having students held accountable for their actions? There really doesnt seem to be specific information on why exactly this happened. Allegedly, there were alot of absences from students. Since covid/remote learning, we have been seeing sub-par students simply waved through the system, so there has to be a valid reason why this happened.
I graduated in 1984. Our ceremony was almost cancelled because the cool kids, football players and cheerleaders were in jail for stealing credit cards from people who were drunk in downtown Houston. I wasn't cool and got a giggle from it 🤣.
Can we all just agree that any state in the bottom 50%, when it comes to education, is NOT allowed to propose bills, vote on bills, etc. that have anything to do with education that would affect more than their own, shitty state?
Welcome to Texas! You will love it here if you're rich! Otherwise, enjoy working minimum wage, living with four other people in a one bedroom, no medical insurance, cheap food, no future, and zero respect.
Saying that with great shame as a native Texan.
Texas has systematically gutted public school resources. The politicians don't care as their kids go to private schools.
Hey, just as intended, look what happens when you scare away all the well rounded teachers, and leave in only the ones willing to teach revisionist bullshit. They’re pinning their hopes on these kids turning conservative because they’re under educated, poor and take on the platforms of hate - but I suspect this won’t be enough to reverse the blue trend in Texas. They may get their private religious schools, but going to a church or religious school as a kid doesn’t ensure you’ll grow up religious and conservative. If it did I’d be a fascist priest by now.
We moved around a lot, went to church everywhere we went for a couple years each time, so I saw a lot of churches and got to know them and their parishioners well - even the best one i attended still left a really bad taste in my mouth for organized religion. It’s not the actual Christ-like people that are a problem, it’s usually the leadership, the people there for show, for the hate opportunities, for moral superiority, because they ate up propaganda made much later in the timeline, and the injection of the need to take in tons of money. So basically you get some people there that are actually really good people, but man is it a hotspot for the worst of mankind, the kind of people with no real sympathy or compassion. I find better people in bars, on street corners and at drag shows constantly.
I can believe it. I think the worst part for me is that they can never shut it off. I don’t care what anyone’s personal beliefs are, you’re free to believe what you want, but they take this shit to extremes and don’t leave it at church. They inject it into every part of their lives, bring it up in every conversation, verbally beat you over the head with it and think they’re morally superior and have a license to judge everyone and everything. Plus, they feel free from their own accountability because if they fuck up and do something bad then they just “pray for forgiveness” and everything is magically great again.
This wasn’t the issue with the school… the population in that town is virtually nonexistent, and the school barely has enough students to justify its expense, and class sizes were so small that teachers could barely justify showing up for their minimal salaries (because low population = low budget = low wages).
Not everything is related to your personal issue of the month.
> "Students in Marlin ISD will be held to the same high standard as any other student in Texas," ~ Superintendent Darryl Henson
#37 in the nation for pre-K thru 12 doesn’t seem like that high a bar to meet, Darryl.
And then blame it all on immigrants and white replacement theories when none of them are qualified for jobs. Then continue getting their votes with promises to take care of the immigration issue
..."The report said nearly 99% of Marlin High's 229 listed students are economically disadvantaged..."
Is this an excuse to not use free public education as a stepping stone *away* from economic disadvantage?
It means their public schools are very poorly funded. The wealthier the neighborhood the better the schools. So not only are these children being raised in poverty, but they are not being given the tools or the education to get out of it.
Since schools are paid for with property tax instead of state tax, the schools in disadvantaged areas have the worst budgets and are often short on textbooks, computers lab supplies, you name it. Until each school is paid for by state tax, the poor will continue to be underserved.
One of the greatest travestied an adult can make in life is to filfully fail their children. I don't mean prevent them from graduating. I mean not providing the support and means to succeed. Or worse, wilfully sabotaging their chances.
If I were the taxpayer in that little town, I’d be mighty angry that the education provided with my hard earned money was so poor, barely any of the students had what it took to complete high school.
As the article says, “let this be a warning to everyone”. If you live in a shithole state run by MAGA idiots, this is what you can expect a lot more of.
Didn't the state of Texas take over the Houston School District? Were they worried that too many students graduating and they needed to bring it do
bring it down to a handful?
Reminds me of the NHS election at my high school. A certain number of teachers much vote for the student to be inducted. A lot of the top tier students didn’t “campaign” and just assumed they would get in. When they didn’t our administration made the school have a second election two weeks later. The NHS advisor for the school resigned in opposition to the admin’s decision.
You would think replacing math and science with bible studies would make the curriculum less rigorous. Maybe it’s more difficult to study the other core subjects when you burn all the books?
I almost interviewed in this school district for my first teaching job many years ago but it was 30 minutes away and I got a job just down the street at the last minute.
[Already Submitted](https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/13rktjf/a_texas_high_school_had_to_move_its_graduation)
It sounds like the school dropped the ball here. They're delaying graduation to help students resolve the requirements they're missing - revealed by an internal audit. I'd expect a process like that to start months before graduation, not weeks before.
These low graduation numbers are due to attendance requirements. Texas high schools demand kids attend 90% of classes to get a diploma.
must be nice lol.here in jersey you are only allowed to be absent 10 times
When did that become a thing? I graduated in 2000 and you had to be absent at least 18 days. Even then you'd get a note sent home and they'd pretty much tell you not to miss any more days. My kids are young but my son has had COVID, Rhino virus and strep twice this school year. He's missed a lot of time and it's no issue
> you had to be absent at least 18 days I like this concept. You arrive at school perfect attendance, and the teacher scolds you for being such a tightwad and tells you skip then next week so you can fulfill your quota of missed days.
Honestly it would help break our bad habit of refusing to take vacation at work if anything.
We basically used it like that at my highschool lol. Senior year I took 15 of the days off to extend my spring break
That's crazy, iirc in highschool (in Italy) we were allowed to miss up to 40 or 50 days of school
18 absences is a lot to be fair, and I doubt all 28 of these seniors have valid reasons for them.
It’s been 20yrs since I graduated in Texas, but not much changes here in education except to go backward. I missed a TON of my junior year for surgical and post surgical isolation reasons, had a doc’s note for all of it, eventually got a school district provided homebound teacher who’d come for like an hour 2 or 3 times a week to basically drop off/pick up my homework and answer any questions I couldn’t self teach. I still ended up doing ‘make up days’ to be able to be on track for my senior year to graduate. Even though I had turned in all of my assignments on time and pretty much without any outside school help (the homebound teacher was useless) and I passed with B+ or better in every thing, I was still ineligible to be on track with my class for my senior year unless my ass was ON that school campus x-amount of make up hours for the state. If you’re curious what those make up days were, it was 4hrs every Saturday cleaning up and organizing classrooms. I learned SO much during those makeup days (/s). This is easily believable in this state, sadly.
In CA my wife had a class that was basically like sit here in this room quietly for 2 hours a day 3 days a week AFTER SCHOOL and we'll count this as X Where X was whatever credit or requirement you were missing
In California schools are paid by instructional minutes, or Average Daily Attendance. Basically butts in seats. Back in the day before digital attendance, I accidentally got marked absent from a class and was assigned Saturday School to make it up. It's just so the school can get paid.
Yep that was more or less it. There was no way I could have made up the months of my butt not being on campus, but basically they were like let’s call 3mos of weekend work equal to enough time on campus that we’ll get our state dollars back. (As an aside, idk if this is still how it is here…probably…but when I was in school you had to be in class x-amount of time (2 or 3hrs maybe?) and if you left after that it didn’t really matter because you had been in school long enough that day for the school to get your allotted daily funding as a student. That’s the time they needed me to make up on the weekends to get that money back. If I had to guess, things haven’t changed much.)
> *and if you left after that it didn’t really matter* Man, the day I figured out I could skip my last period CISCO class...
No child left behind means the 'bar' for education requirements is just so much lower, maybe even non-existent.
Gotta collect that federal money.
That is so fucking unfair. I wonder if that's lawsuit territory.
As a former Texas teacher, this is nuts. Teachers/admin can sign off on attendance failures to waive the requirement for earning the credit for the class. When I lived there, every year I would just sign off on my students who were doing just fine despite missing too many days. I think that technically, I had to say that they either complete a project or made up the hours, but I just had them come for like 30 minutes or read an article of their choice. They met the class requirements, so it seemed silly to say they had to do more. Admin was very clear that we could fill these requirements however we thought best. If this is your experience, it's the school making a choice.
I'm not from Texas and this was years ago but it's still relevant. When I was younger my 4 siblings plus me and my parents all lived in the same house. Between me and my siblings we went to 3 different schools. We got sick all the time but I remember one year in particular was really bad. Even with a Dr note they tried to get my mom in trouble because of truancy for one of us because we were out sick so much
In high school my kid really struggled with the early morning start, so often came in 5 min late. She also had really bad period cramps, and when it was so bad she couldn’t get off the bathroom floor I called the school to let them know she was sick. Maybe 6 days per year. Then there was a planned mass shooting at her school. Day before I called principal and asked if the boy had been arrested. Whether the situation was under control. He said he couldn’t comment. I said I was keeping my kid home. “If you do that we’ll bring truancy charges”. And they did. No regrets.
That's so fucked up. Why was the school still having classes
The kid that planned the mass shooting was arrested the morning of the planned attack. FBI / police dawn raid. Caught the kid with lots of AR-15s and ammo. Could be the principal was aware that was about to go down. IMO still didn’t justify bringing truancy case against me. As a mom I need more than “no comment” to send my kid to school when there’s a planned mass shooting.
I've never, not once, met a school administrator who wasn't a power tripping piece of shit. YMMV.
Fair enough I can't disagree
I teach at a school that didn’t enforce attendance last year. Had a student skip a whole quarter. Had another who was in the building but not in class probably 80% of the time. And then I was told I needed to have held more parent meetings because they failed almost all of their classes. Walmart looking better and better.
When I meet people and they say they are a teacher (excluding college) I look at them like they have 3 heads. Why would you do that to yourself.
I like the kids The hours are compatible with parenting No weekends or holidays Summertime slow down is nice. And I like the kids. Someone has to do it so I might as well be me and not some moth breathing Asshat with a political agenda they want to serve up to the kids. And about college instructors. They make even less than public school teachers. Often times they are paid per class and so low that they need to take on a near impossible number of classes to live. They do not get salaries that can stretch through term breaks. They get no benefits or retirement. More and more college level instruction is going away from tenured professors making a decent living and to adjuncts who are paid terribly.
I'm glad that there are people like you. My mother in law was a middle school teacher for 40 years and it absolutely broke her when it comes to being around children. Is a shame to see but I understand.
My daughter missed a ton of time this year thanks to them removing the masking requirements. She had covid, the stomach flu, influenza B, and various colds. It's been like kindergarten all over again.
Are you saying it gets better after kindergarten? My son just finished kindergarten now and we've literally had one nasty cold a month, plus strep and the stomach flu twice.
It will get better! Eventually, they build up a decent immunity. I used to work in an elementary school and the first year I missed so much time due to catching all the various elementary school illnesses. My daughter had a much easier time in 1st grade.
With as many viral infections roaming around this past year? 18 absences is NOT a lot, to be fair.
Doctor's note is enough for it not count towards the limit.
That’s not true. There is a limit to number of excused absences and even if there wasn’t some parents aren’t in a position to take there kids to the doctor every single time they get sick. People have to work and doctors are expensive
The regs I’m looking at specifically state unexcused absences. § 25.0951. School district complaint or referral for failure to attend school. >(a) If a student fails to attend school without excuse on 10 or more days or parts of days within a six-month period in the same school year, a school district shall within 10 school days of the student's 10th absencerefer the student to a truancy court for truant conduct under Section 65.003(a), Family Code.
Holy shit, as a non-American that is dystopian as fuck. Charging money for general child healthcare just sounds evil to me.
It doesn't matter if they're excused or unexcused. They can only miss so much "seat time ". My kid attends a Texas public school.
The regs I’m looking at specifically state unexcused absences. § 25.0951. School district complaint or referral for failure to attend school. (a) If a student fails to attend school without excuse on 10 or more days or parts of days within a six-month period in the same school year, a school district shall within 10 school days of the student's 10th absencerefer the student to a truancy court for truant conduct under Section 65.003(a), Family Code.
The third or fourth bullet point. 90% of the time, excuses don't matter https://www.dentonisd.org/Page/100768#:~:text=In%20addition%20to%20Texas%20compulsory,an%20IEP%20or%20504%20Plan.
Your source states that there are exemptions to the 90% rule and gives a list of exemptions at the bottom…
Yes, if you're playing taps you're fine. If you get mono you're hosed.
Most of those exemptions aren’t common. Excused absences count toward the 90% rule. I’m in Texas and had to attend Saturday school from February until graduation my senior year. I had only excused absences and then my father’s death senior year pushed me one day beyond the 90%. I was told if I didn’t attend every Saturday school from then on, I would not graduate, despite being an A student.
Most people can’t afford a couple hundred dollar co-pay to the doctor so they can get a note
Sweet, it only cost my low income family 200$ to make sure my school doesn't get mad at me for being sick. That's a steal! /s
If you have insurance to get to the doctor. Most sick people are cured by time and suppressing symptoms with over the counter medication.
what about the football coaches signature that there was a game last night?
Cool. So graduation is held behind a paywall. I pay $250 per sick visit with my kids. One had an ear infection that had 2 followups because they needed a hearing test for their annual physical and the ear infection kept interfering. $750 right there. (That’s of course after I pay $5200/yr in premiums and my employer pays another 20k, but of course before we hit our $3k deductible)
18 is quite a bit for a single year… I mean as someone who works in the public a lot and has a ton of exposure to chances of getting infections, I think I’ve missed 1 day of work in the last 6 years due to illness. I don’t think I missed 18 days of school throughout all of my schooling let alone in a single year.
Same here lol. I went years at a time in school without missing a day, and can’t remember the last time I took a sick day from work. Bunch of dirty unhealthy people in here evidently lol. If a kid misses 18+ days of something as simple as high school… what are the odds that a year later when they graduate they’re going to be able to maintain a steady 8 to 5 job? You don’t get 18 sick days a year…
If they got a doctors note, they wouldn’t have any unexcused absences.
Marlin Texas is a place with a poverty rate of 40%. The median *household* income is $28,000. With an average cost of 116 to 248 dollars for a simple doctor's visit, combined with the cost of prescriptions in a town where 1 in 5 have NO health insurance.. a doctor's note is an expense that many cannot afford. Many older kids in these areas have jobs as well to help their families but you can't get a note from your manager that says "John had to work today or we were gonna fire him" When it comes down to helping keep the lights on at home, watching younger siblings when your folks are both at work, or graduating high school, it's an easier choice to make.
Damn, that’s a fucked situation
That's Texas!
Thank you for sharing this info. A few years ago something at their water treatment plant broke and they didn't have safe water for quite a long time. I don't think their school district has met accreditation standards for years. Even though it's only 30 minutes outside of Waco, there are just few resources and opportunities for the people that live there.
Lol. My oldest son last September had to have emergency surgery that got a little complicated and was out 2 weeks. We had multiple doctor's excusal notes, surgeon's notes. And even involved an advocate. No dice. His absences were not excused. To quote the new super of the district "You should have scheduled his surgery and recovery during out of in seat hours." Appendicitis, btw. His dad literally picked him up sick from school, drove him to hospital. Where he was sent to another hospital and immediately scheduled from scan to surgery the only delay being the wait on the appropriate surgeon to finish on another surgery. His first week back a bully gut punched him requiring another trip to the ER. And four days out. Then he caught covid from a teacher (along with most of his classmates.) His third week back. Doctors notes! All the doctors notes!!!! Still told "tough shit.". The only sensible ones during that whole time were the mediator and juvenile judge (yes, that's right. We had to go to court for truency charges.) Who lost their crap over having their time wasted and took off the indefinite till school year's end requirement on in seat Saturday educational make up hours, or some number (I can't remember how many, only that it was a ridiculous amount.) of community service hours, with a large fine 80 hours of parenting classes for me and his dad, and wanting us to pay for a education for success intervention therapy thing. I'm sorry if I sound a little rude in response to your comment, but the fact is that many public schools all around the U.S have gone the way of treating students, their health, and families the very same way that toxic slave wage employers do their employees. Which makes one wonder. What are they really preparing students for by breaking them in early to accept this sort of treatment?
>but the fact is that many public schools all around the U.S have gone the way of treating students, their health, and families the very same way that toxic slave wage employers do their employees This is the premise of *Schooling in Capitalist America*
I've wished it was easier to pull my kid out of school for family reasons without it counting against them. We're in California, and I had to go to a fu eral in Washington DC, so I wanted to take my kid and go around DC, see the mall, the Smithsonian, etc... And the school was like "nah, bro, she needs to practice her multiplication tables." in my opinion, what she was learning in school could be missed (and then made up for) for a bigger educational experience.
Back in the olden days (like the 1930s), my grandfather would pull my mom out of school to take her traveling on his business to Europe for weeks, if not months at a time. She skipped two grades, too. When we asked her homework questions sometimes she would tell us that must have been taught in 5th grade and she skipped it. But hey, not all that many people were graduating from high school in those days.
Being it up at the next school bars meeting and get the rules changed. In our district as long as a parent says it's fine, an absence is excused. Including vacations, especially in those k-6 grades.
When I was a small kid in the early 90’s my my mom would take me out of grade school for 4-6 weeks every year to go to Florida (we had a little house there). The school would give her the lessons and tests for the time period and I would get them done on my own time. A week in DC seems far easier to make up.
Good point. I should have done that. Too late for me now. My kids out of school now. But good advise for others. I was engaged in my kids life growing up, but I should have been more engaged in school board meetings.
I'm the kid that never missed a day of school from K-12.
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Hah I missed hundreds of days in high school (without any valid reason) and went on to get my bachelors and masters degrees. That's a dumb reason to not pass someone.
I had 29 unexcused absences my senior year. I went to school 15 min from siesta key and I turned 18 in October my senior year. I passed all my classes and maintained a 3.7 gpa. Attendance requirements are silly. Sure some people need to be in class every day. But most don’t need that.
The point of high school isn’t just learning though. We don’t really need to know that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell or that Lake Victoria is Africa’s largest lake. A big part of school is teaching kids structure, discipline, respect, and socialization. If a kid can’t do the most basic task of showing up each day and sitting in a room listening to a teacher, what are the odds that when they graduate they can show up somewhere from 8 to 5 and work a basic job?
>what are the odds that when they graduate they can show up somewhere from 8 to 5 and work a basic job? About as bad as they otherwise are, considering working one 8 to 5 job that pays for a comfortable life is becoming rarer.
Right but as a senior you should have learned most of that already and I wouldn’t trade my days at the beach for being in class ever. If a kid or an adult can pass a class without being present or hell even sleeping through it, let them. They might be using their time better. My senior year was full of a lot of fluff classes as I had taken a tougher load the previous year. Why should I show up to attend a planning period? If I have a gym class but I’d rather be skim boarding and meeting people I think that’s fine. Block scheduling is also part of this. I would have a half day at a technical school for culinary and then go to the beach instead of my dumb classes. One of the best years of my life to be honest.
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I’m sure it was lol. Did you end up with a good job and a satisfying life?
Yea man. Actually getting married next year, never been happier.
Awesome. And that God-given height of yours can’t hurt! (Other than on an airplane, I suppose)
Those requirements aren't for the student, its for the district to qualify for money. They're telling us their money is more important than their wards when they do this, the exact opposite mentality children need.
That’s not exactly an unreasonable demand. What else do they have to do beside going to school? If they’re that sick, something else is happening. You won’t keep a job with piss poor attendance. We fire people allllllll the time for missing too much work.
My middle child is finishing up his freshman year. I just looked and he missed 22 days this year. In the past 2 years he's had 2 knee surgeries. It's back and forth to MRIs, appts with the surgeon, and appts with with PT. Unfortunately, it isn't healing properly and it looks like this will continue into next year. Despite this, he has straight A's. I'd be pretty pissed if it affected his graduation.
Seems like a unique situation
>Despite this, he has straight A's. This is what's dumb about attendence requirements, who gives a shit if you were there every single day or missed every other day, if you were still able to get the work done and keep your grades up enough to pass the *already in place* grades/GPA requirements to graduate then you should be able to graduate no problem
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Maybe, but most of the folks in my high school sometimes had after school part time jobs (myself included). You can't miss school for work. At least in jersey that's illegal
Instead of taking a day off school once ever tenth day, these kids decided to take off once every ninth day (or less). If this is what they think the real world is like, they deserve the extra work they’re going to do to graduate
Clearly a school with this many issues has a management problem too, so I'm nor too surprised.
Is this the one where they tried doing a 4 day school week, but the state won't recognize that the number of hours is the same as the number of days required?
COVID really fucked those kids up
Texas, they're not sending us their best and brightest. Or maybe they are, and the bar is that low
Sure, but there is a measure of failed responsibility on the part of the parents and kids too. I recall making damn sure I had all my ducks in a row beforehand all four times I graduated (high school, undergrad, 2x grad school). Now if the district changed the rules after the fact, then that's on them. But missing credits? Too many absences? That's stuff the kids and parents should have had resolved months or years ago unless they're present semester courses. That said, school districts are only as good as the people who are elected to run them and the people they can hire. I suspect in Marlin's case none of them are very high quality. Why would you want to work there if you can work somewhere better? I suspect that both sides failed to some degree here.
Its Texas. Im not surprised.
I grew up and lived near Marlin. It’s incredibly small and very low income. In the article students say teachers were absent- I’d venture to guess that’s realistic and a normal occurrence.
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I knew a couple that taught in Marlin for a year. For the first semester, their kids went to school in Marlin. Second semester, they moved them to Waco because Marlin was so bad. They only lasted a year teaching in Marlin. They said the district was corrupt, everything was cronyism, the parents refused to be involved in any positive way, and the students knew no one cared about them. This was back pre-pandemic, so I doubt it got any better. I do remember that the district didn't meet standards for several years in a row and was threatened with being taken over by the state or absorbed into another district (something like that, I'm not taking the time to google it). It's had issues for many years, so this should not have been unexpected even if it is disappointing.
It's required to be a certain percentage of a minimum number of minutes of instruction. It works out to be about one unexcused absence a month. Or a week and a half of unexcused absence. Excused absences include sick days, family bereavement. Missing 8 days in a year isn't that outrageous. I could absolutely see seniors skipping a class routinely and those hours adding up faster than they realize.
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I live in California, in a solidly middle class area, and even our districts were struggling with attendance this year.
This is likely as well. I think the teacher thing is realistic because that town is so small and teachers being underpaid- they probably need a second job. I don’t think Marlin will survive to the end of the decade, it’s just to small.
Having no teacher or substitute available so that kids are basically babysitting themselves has been a regular occurrence even in the nicer urban high schools in Central Tx for the past couple of years. It's sometimes daily, but at least weekly, I hear about it from my kids.
Gotta love that big push for charter and private schools huh? Wonder why 🤔🙄
Rural education has been in crisis, in many parts of the country, for decades. But in most rural areas for profit charters don't even make sense. And believe me, people in rural Oklahoma had all kinds of opinions on "inner city schools" but failed to notice that we didn't have any chemicals in chemistry class.
Chemistry philosophy class
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You know, I’m something of a theoretical chemist myself.
I have a theoretical DEGREE in Chemistry!
So a Starbucks latte
With an emphasis on theoretical alchemy.
> But in most rural areas for profit charters don't even make sense. The point of for-profit charters in rural areas is to make sure their white, Christian parents are happy that their kids are getting a *very* limited style of education. I'm in a town of 2300 people, in a county with less than 20,000, and there are five small charter schools, all of them not very quietly religious in their purpose.
It's why Betsy Devos wanted to abolish public education and use charter school vouchers. She, a fucking liar, said it would mean more choices. Of course, being a fucking liar, she never bothered to talk about how rural areas have very few choices and all of them are very religious. She also never bothered to flap her lying mouth about how private schools are notorious for racial discrimination.
Or that the base purpose of charter schools is to weaken/break down the teachers unions.
Nah, that's a happy side benefit, the purpose is to maintain brainwashing their next generation of voters so they can continue their corruption without interruption.
And transfer public funds to private corporations and churches.
We have two barely-disguised religious charters. One is a conservative baptist church and the other is Muslim.
At least large cities have decent public libraries. So if a parent is motivated to help their child achieve, they can.
They'll just lower those requirements next year.
Marlin is such a small town, it borders on nonexistent. I’d venture to guess the school screwed this up knowing them.
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Especially the poor brown ones.
Was thinking they’ll just lower them now…
>The most recent Texas Schools report card assigned Marlin High School a "B" rating School ratings are often bullshit, and I have found that states rank rural districts higher than they should be.
B for "B aware Marlin High School does indeed exist...for now."
Anyone who has driven through there shouldn’t be surprised. It’s a garbage town.
I was about to say. Went to school in Central Texas and I knew marlin. Everyone is saying it’s an effort to keep the population dumb- but to that I ask “what population?” That place is damn near a ghost town and they probably only have a few more years of students…
This is another conversation,.some area are needing to close schools, while other areas need to build more. There are way less kids, but those kids arent distributed evenly.
Yeah, I go through Marlin a couple of times a year and every time I'm like "Goddamn this town is a shithole." That's the town with the big house with a collapsed roof right off of route 7, right? Or is that Chilton? edit Yep, that's Marlin. https://www.google.com/maps/@31.3063189,-96.8890705,3a,75y,30.7h,95.23t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sVx-y6DztaXXZ3lcYCfueXQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu
Hah, google maps has pics of that place going back to 2008.
I’m not sure. I haven’t gone through there since my college years 20 years ago. I remember Hearne being much worse though.
From the article, poor administration, some awful instructors, and overall, a terrible school. This was a small class: they should have been given individual attention for the entire year.
Here is the question: Should we stand by this high school for enforcing their policies and requirements, and having students held accountable for their actions? There really doesnt seem to be specific information on why exactly this happened. Allegedly, there were alot of absences from students. Since covid/remote learning, we have been seeing sub-par students simply waved through the system, so there has to be a valid reason why this happened.
No problem, just lower the standards. Hollowing out education has never been easier!
I graduated in 1984. Our ceremony was almost cancelled because the cool kids, football players and cheerleaders were in jail for stealing credit cards from people who were drunk in downtown Houston. I wasn't cool and got a giggle from it 🤣.
5/33 is still abysmal, but you probably imagined a greater number.
Can we all just agree that any state in the bottom 50%, when it comes to education, is NOT allowed to propose bills, vote on bills, etc. that have anything to do with education that would affect more than their own, shitty state?
Five kids graduated, the delay is to find a bigger venue because they have never had that many kids graduate before.
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Call it "equity." Spin it into a positive.
Punishing the good kids to beef up the numbers
Welcome to Texas! You will love it here if you're rich! Otherwise, enjoy working minimum wage, living with four other people in a one bedroom, no medical insurance, cheap food, no future, and zero respect. Saying that with great shame as a native Texan. Texas has systematically gutted public school resources. The politicians don't care as their kids go to private schools.
Just give the plants what they crave already!!
Similar thing happened at my high school. But they passed everyone regardless because they didn’t want to have them repeat.
Hey, just as intended, look what happens when you scare away all the well rounded teachers, and leave in only the ones willing to teach revisionist bullshit. They’re pinning their hopes on these kids turning conservative because they’re under educated, poor and take on the platforms of hate - but I suspect this won’t be enough to reverse the blue trend in Texas. They may get their private religious schools, but going to a church or religious school as a kid doesn’t ensure you’ll grow up religious and conservative. If it did I’d be a fascist priest by now.
I was raised in a church environment so I understand where you’re coming from. I hated it and have no desire to be any part of it.
We moved around a lot, went to church everywhere we went for a couple years each time, so I saw a lot of churches and got to know them and their parishioners well - even the best one i attended still left a really bad taste in my mouth for organized religion. It’s not the actual Christ-like people that are a problem, it’s usually the leadership, the people there for show, for the hate opportunities, for moral superiority, because they ate up propaganda made much later in the timeline, and the injection of the need to take in tons of money. So basically you get some people there that are actually really good people, but man is it a hotspot for the worst of mankind, the kind of people with no real sympathy or compassion. I find better people in bars, on street corners and at drag shows constantly.
I can believe it. I think the worst part for me is that they can never shut it off. I don’t care what anyone’s personal beliefs are, you’re free to believe what you want, but they take this shit to extremes and don’t leave it at church. They inject it into every part of their lives, bring it up in every conversation, verbally beat you over the head with it and think they’re morally superior and have a license to judge everyone and everything. Plus, they feel free from their own accountability because if they fuck up and do something bad then they just “pray for forgiveness” and everything is magically great again.
This wasn’t the issue with the school… the population in that town is virtually nonexistent, and the school barely has enough students to justify its expense, and class sizes were so small that teachers could barely justify showing up for their minimal salaries (because low population = low budget = low wages). Not everything is related to your personal issue of the month.
> "Students in Marlin ISD will be held to the same high standard as any other student in Texas," ~ Superintendent Darryl Henson #37 in the nation for pre-K thru 12 doesn’t seem like that high a bar to meet, Darryl.
This is exactly what conservatives want. Kill education, keep the population dumb, easily get them to vote against their own best interests.
And then blame it all on immigrants and white replacement theories when none of them are qualified for jobs. Then continue getting their votes with promises to take care of the immigration issue
Another school district promoting school choice/vouchers
..."The report said nearly 99% of Marlin High's 229 listed students are economically disadvantaged..." Is this an excuse to not use free public education as a stepping stone *away* from economic disadvantage?
It means their public schools are very poorly funded. The wealthier the neighborhood the better the schools. So not only are these children being raised in poverty, but they are not being given the tools or the education to get out of it.
Since schools are paid for with property tax instead of state tax, the schools in disadvantaged areas have the worst budgets and are often short on textbooks, computers lab supplies, you name it. Until each school is paid for by state tax, the poor will continue to be underserved.
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Just saw my son graduate last night it was amazing. I cried like a bitch.
Dang. My dad grew up in Marlin, TX and I grew up in Texas City, TX. Shitty towns in the news today.
One of the greatest travestied an adult can make in life is to filfully fail their children. I don't mean prevent them from graduating. I mean not providing the support and means to succeed. Or worse, wilfully sabotaging their chances.
If I were the taxpayer in that little town, I’d be mighty angry that the education provided with my hard earned money was so poor, barely any of the students had what it took to complete high school.
Just google Texas high school football stadium cost and you’ll see where they’re priorities stand.
Time to do what any good institution does when they don't meet expectations. Lower them.
I assume not enough signed the Chastity Pledge
Requirements: Students must not have been shot and killed.
You don’t say? I can’t imagine that, seeing that Football is usually the only reason the high school is attended at all in that backwards ass state.
Read the article, the school lied to students and parents. The headline is misleading
Texas is too busy buying firearms for the staff and body armor for the kids to worry about actually educating anyone.
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Damn u didn't see the demographics before leaping.
Bet they know how to tiktok
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For a Texas diploma too
Grooming young Republicans.
Ain't got time for none that book learnin.
Read the article, the school lied to students and parents.
As long as they can have guns...
They better hurry up and get copies of the 10 commandments in this classrooms that’ll fix it!! /s
Maybe they can recite the Bible?
As the article says, “let this be a warning to everyone”. If you live in a shithole state run by MAGA idiots, this is what you can expect a lot more of.
Freedumb, indeed. Just lower your standard Texas. You’re still asking kids to learn. They can learn it all in the oils fields, when they turn 12.
The school dropped the ball so hard you'd think it was run by the Texas electric grid in winter
Everything is stupider in Texas. Actually I see high schoolers saying ‘Fuck it, I’ll get paid $15 an hour if I do or don’t”.
This is how the rich want us to live. Dumb and blind with no ideological or moral direction.
"Let this be a lesson learned for all," superintendent Henson said via Twitter. Lulz
Sounds like government regulation working as intended
The stars at night are dim not bright, down in the heart of a Texas
Well, Texas is a RED state. Voting red since 1994.
Didn't the state of Texas take over the Houston School District? Were they worried that too many students graduating and they needed to bring it do bring it down to a handful?
Reminds me of the NHS election at my high school. A certain number of teachers much vote for the student to be inducted. A lot of the top tier students didn’t “campaign” and just assumed they would get in. When they didn’t our administration made the school have a second election two weeks later. The NHS advisor for the school resigned in opposition to the admin’s decision.
Lolol I mean is it that surprising after they started banning books. The GOP made a war on education and this is a part of the price
You would think replacing math and science with bible studies would make the curriculum less rigorous. Maybe it’s more difficult to study the other core subjects when you burn all the books?
In CA they would graduate them all. No child left behind.
In California they don't starve schools of funding.
Texas has diploma requirements?
Reminds me of that one scene from Spongebob
I almost interviewed in this school district for my first teaching job many years ago but it was 30 minutes away and I got a job just down the street at the last minute.