Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

February 7, 2012

Mark and Amy Denicore of Waterford, Virginia face a March 14 criminal trial because their three schoolchildren have accumulated roughly thirty tardy slips. The couple was arraigned on February 6 before Judge Pamela L. Brooks of the Loudon County juvenile and domestic relations court. Each of them has been charged with three misdemeanors, each of which carries a maximum fine of $500, according to the Washington Post.

Neither of the applicable statutes specifically addresses tardiness as a basis for prosecution, which means that Loudoun County has no legal authority to convict the Denicores of an offense.

Largely in response to pressures put on them through the federal No Child Left Behind measure, school districts nation-wide are hauling parents into court to face criminal sanctions for chronically tardy or absent children.

Last June, for example, the Long Beach Police Department arrested the mother of a middle school student on charges that she had failed ?to ensure her son?s regular attendance in school, in violation of a new truancy law that provides for criminal prosecution? in such cases.

From the perspective of those who run the government school system, children belong to the State ? and are only incidentally the responsibility of the parents to whom God gave them.

Let us take back the Liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.