Parents Serve Detention With Daughter

Steven and Susan Manis had car trouble several times in October and November. That made their daughter, Jessica, late for school six times. At Pearland Junior High East, students tardy more than twice receive a one hour detention. Since the school would not relent (though it looks like they may have, because the kid should have more than one detention by my count), the parents came to serve the detention with their daughter.

"This is a case of a zero tolerance policy gone wild," Susan Manis said. She said the part of school her daughter missed never included an academic class but a home room-like class called "Advisory."

She said the tardies came on mornings when the school bus had already passed before she found out her van wouldn't start. A recurring electrical problem with the vehicle has been remedied, she said.

"We are enforcing the handbook consequences for a student who is repeatedly late to school," Principal Lonnie Leal said in a written statement.

While i've always been critical of zero tolerance policies,I disagree with the parents. This policy is reasonable. The only wild thing I see here is that these parents think that the tardy policy shouldn’t apply to their daughter because they feel she has a good reason for being late.

To be honest, I think this is just a political stunt. Both parents ran for school board last spring, and both were defeated. I'd bet they are planning another run.