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Going back to school brings many joys to students. There are fresh notebooks, fall sports, seeing friends, new clothes and the new wax and paint smell of the school. Those joys are not shared by a small group. Some call them “the truants.”
There are a couple dozen students at both Onalaska and Holmen high schools who do not want to be there and often are not in school, vexing school officials and the courts.
Wisconsin law insists students attend school until they graduate or turn 18, but a small number of students don’t care about the law. They have any number of reasons not to be there. “It could be trouble in the family, their peers, transportation; there are all kinds of reasons for truancy,” said Coulee Region Joint Municipal Court Judge John Brinckman.
Ticketing students and having them in court does not cure the problem, according to Brinckman. “There is nothing I can do with a little fine,” he said. The fine is $71.20 for the first offense and is $146.60 and a month’s loss of driver’s license by the fourth time a student is cited for truancy.
“A fine is as poor a resolution as there can be for truancy,” Brinckman said. “A fine just does not fix the problem.”
Authorities agree that losing a driver’s license bothers the students, but it still doesn’t get them any closer to a diploma. “To just give tickets is not helping kids,”
Onalaska High School Associate Principal Jared Schaffner said. “In general, parents want their kids to be in school, because they want them to be successful.”
Onalaska is working with parents much more than before. Many are not aware their child is not in school. “Calls to parents are wonderful. It’s huge when they ask what has been going on,” Schaffner said. “When the parents are involved — wow!”
Onalaska is trying to make school more attractive to kids. “We want to give kids more reasons to be in school,” Schaffner said. That approach includes less punishment and more privileges.
Holmen has four or five programs tailored for kids who do not do well in regular classrooms, said Holmen High School Associate Principal Bob Baer. “Holmen works hard for a kid to get an education and enjoy getting it,” Baer said.
He points to extracurricular programs such as football, plays and Odyssey of the Mind as examples, “so kids have something to look forward to.” Baer said his job would be much worse if school did not offer extracurricular activities.
Holmen and Onalaska differ on their approach to tickets. “We may write more tickets than most schools,” said Baer.
On the other hand, Schaffner is going for more parent involvment and fewer citations. “I hate referring these kids to (Onalaska police resource officer Jasson Jobe) and he hates writing tickets,” Schaffner explain.
Students who are truant are not discipline problems, according to both Baer and Schaffner. They are simply kids who do not want to be in school, and for as many different reasons as there are truants.
Brinckman plans alternatives for truants because there are so many reasons why they are not in school. “Every situation has a different ‘why,’” Brinckman said. He will use La Crosse County’s Restorative Justice Program as well as the county’s human services department. “We’ll start referring kids right away and get cases to where there can be some problem solving.”
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