Jr. High Student Arrested Over Absences

Chronic absenteeism is an issue across the United States.  Depending upon the school's policy, a child's absenteeism is considered "chronic" when they miss 15-18 days for the entire school year.  Those unexcused absences can add up.  Just missing 2 days per month during the school year can put your child in the danger zone.  Exceeding the maximum amount of allowable absences can mean your child can be sent to summer school, or worse.

In what can only be described as an extreme case chronic absenteeism, a 14 year old Oklahoma student has been arrested for missing too much school.  Fox23 News is reporting that the unnamed Muskogee Public School junior high school student has had 18 absences, and was put in handcuffs last week - then taken to the Community Intervention Center.

The child's mother claims that most of the absences were excused by doctors, and that her son shouldn't be punished because she was the one who failed to go to the school and straighten out the matter with school administrators.  School officials declined to comment, instead stating that they can't comment on specific cases.