He has four names? I think his truancy is a form of revenge.

Well, his last name is hyphenated, so really it's a first name, a middle name and a hyphenated last name, I guess that's 3.5 names. ;-)

Did you actually grab him by the ear when you brought him into the high school? That is hardcore motherly justice.

Truant on a Friday before a long weekend? Why does that sound so familiar to me?

Silly of him to hang out so close to your office that's for sure!

Oh jeez... I'm having a flashback of the time I got similarly busted by my dad, while I was playing Galaga at the arcade (this was the early 80s after all) when I should have been in school. Major OOPS.

Wish I could've seen the hide-n-seek game. ;D And that's ludicrous that the school can't even account for who's there and who's not. Unbelieveable. (On the plus side, it must mean his school isn't one of these maximum-security-prison schools, like so many of them in Atlanta appear to be.)

It's always been my experience that a little truancy is good for the soul, but a lot of truancy is bad for the brains and the soul. If you are going to play the game you have to play it smart though, you did the right thing. It's funny to me that he ran away from you, like if he managed to avoid you he would get away with it, like he was running down the clock in a basketball game or something.

Wish I could've seen the hide-n-seek game. ;D

I was just coming here to say that I wish I had seen the whole thing. mgl, would you mind recording your life in high-def video and uploading the highlights for us?

I wonder how much things are the same or different from when I was in high school twenty-five years ago.

I first skipped school my freshman year, and was immediately busted for it and got a painful "swat" from the teacher of the class I skipped—who was also the baseball coach and a former minor-league pitcher. It was very painful and made an, um, impact on me. I didn't skip again until late my sophomore year.

But my junior year I became as disgruntled and angry as I'd ever been about school and began skipping again. At first I got in trouble and they punished every case where they caught me (usually because I didn't even try to forge an excuse or something). But once I had done it often enough and regularly enough, nothing was done at all. I eventually was not going to almost any of my classes for weeks at a time. They didn't try to contact my parents. They just seem to have given up.

However, very near the end of that year the school admin decided to act and actually forced me to meet with the assistant district attorney, who explained to me that truancy was a crime for which I could be sentenced to the state's "boy's school" (meaning adolescent prison). That scared me and I didn't skip again until midway into my senior year. By that time, they also just eventually threw up their hands and figured that if I graduated (which was uncertain), the problem would resolve itself.

This doesn't seem to have been the best way to handle me, but the alternatives seem worse. Under modern rules I'd have been forced to not participate in any "extra-curricular" activies, which in my case would have been band. But during my junior year band was the only class I went to and had I been not allowed to participate, I would have simply dropped out of high school. That would have been a bad thing. Similarly, for a short time my parents considered sending me to a military academy. I pointed out to them how incredibly stubborn I was and that far more likely than not I'd immediately go into the stockade and eventually run away. So they abandoned that idea.

Incidentally, through this entire time no one—not even my parents—asked me why I was so unhappy and why I hated school so much. No one took any notice of when I attended and in what classes I did well and what they had in common (more challenging classes). My parents just assumed I would get nothing but "A's" because of my "potential", and in particular my dad just went insane when I didn't. Yet my sophomore year I got mostly A's and a few B's and they didn't even notice. The only difference is that he yelled at me less often.

Personally, I think that skipping school is something most teens are going to do now and then and a sort of procedural with-misbehavior-comes-punishment response is necessary. But for just occasional or unique misbehavior, there's no cause for freaking out. But when a teen is habitually truant...then the parents and teachers should take a good, hard look at how the teen feels about his/her life and schooling and get to the bottom of the problem. Responding only to the symptoms is not going to cure the illness.

My high school was somewhat the same, mgl- the first period teacher would take attendance for the whole day. My first period teacher senior year was a funny guy, but not a great attendance taker. One day my Mom called to give me a message, and the school secretary told her, Oh, Kate isn't in school today. I walk into the office a few minutes later to cut through to my next class, and she says, hey, I thought you weren't here today, I just told your mother you weren't!

MGL, I bet you feel all bad-ass now, don't you? I would.

Why did I assume this was going to be about MGL herself getting busted?

skipping school with keith: the mini-series

I just went to classes and read my books. There wasn't anything to do when I skipped school, so I just went and ignored it.

My nephew got suspended once for skipping school. This made no sense to me at all.

Actually, I used to skip school all the time when I was in 11th grade. A lot of the time I'd go climb a tree and read all day - it was better than school. So I finally got busted and the headmistress (this was a private girls school in SC) didn't believe me when I told her what I'd been doing - and then I said, Look, I'm getting straight As only coming to school 2 or 3 times a week, why should I bother with 5? She was inclined to lenience before but that sent her round the bend and she started sputtering about attitude and suspended me. Great, more time off school.

But that was ME and so it was OK. This is my son and so it is NOT OK. Thus goes parenting.

I can't believe they have no "central attendance". Most states pay funding based on number of students in school; they HAVE to have that data.

I never skipped school. The inclination was definitely there but that was one of two things that would get you kicked out of that place. Like, the very-next-day kicked out. No mercy kicked out. Let the doorknob hit you where the good lord split you kicked out.

So I wussed out and followed that particular rule.

My kids school calls the day your kid doesn't show up. Of course, they may not call until midday, but they do call.

And our darlings have not yet figured out how to delete phone messages, thanks to our phone line being cable and all.

I never cut class, but when I was in my junior and senior year I tried to get into as may IS (independent study) classes as possible.

That way, my last two years of high school, my day ended at 1pm. :)