28 October 2010

Zed's truancy bill, a bazooka to kill roaches

| johnboy
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Liberal Leader Zed Seselja has announced he’s introduced legislation “to allow businesses who choose not to serve students during schools hours to do so without fear of unintended legal consequences”.

In particular he’s proposing exemptions to the Discrimination Act, which he rightly points out is riddled with exemptions already.

This all stems from the whoo haa down in Lanyon over the local Kingsleys hiding behind the Discrimination Act to keep serving wagging kids.

But if we want to solve truancy mob justice against youth friendly business seems a poor way to go about it. Unless vending machines start checking IDs kids out of school will still be able to buy fizzy drinks.

Automated emailing of parents when kids miss classes would be a good start, and failing kids with unsatisfactory attendance records (perhaps followed by automatic transfer to a more rigorous facility) would certainly give them more incentive to turn up.

Anyone else got any thoughts?

Truancy

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bitzermaloney said :

Options:

1. Bring back the cain.

I second your motion of caning people who cannot spell.

While I don’t run the kind of shop frequented by teenagers wagging school, I often see kids that look school age during school hours. There’s quite a few kids in Canberra who are home schooled so don’t keep to the same time table as kids attending mainstream public schools. Or teenagers completing their Year 12 certificate via CIT with flexible hours. Or girls in the teen mums program at Canberra College with flexible hours to allow for their parenting responsibilities. Or kids who are actually finished school but look younger than they really are. Not to mention all the other legit reasons a kid might have the odd hour or even a full day off school – appointments, pupil free days, free periods etc. Zed’s policy might be effective in a small community where everyone knows who is supposed to be at school and who’s not, but Canberra is too big and varied a community to expect everyone to do things the same way.

babyface said :

the concept of incentive is randian nonsense.

Are you alluding to ‘septic’ politics ??

All babies should be handed over to the government who will then map out and control their lives until they have finished high school

Yup, just call up the gubmint after sproglet pops out and they will collect from hospital so you don’t even have to rent a baby capsule for the car. Your offspring will return home in a cab after their 18th just in time to slur “hi Mum and Dad” before spewing all over your carpet.

grumpyrhonda9:18 pm 28 Oct 10

far_northact said :

But this is a school where beating up a teacher with a golf club and destroying school property only gains you a short-term suspension.
(thats not to say I don’t agree that parents should be involved in truancy/other behaviour – but if you saw some of these “parents” you would know it’s a waste of time).

Gee, I wonder what school that is….Gold cough cough Creek. My daughter went there and the only way to get through that school is constant contact with the teachers when needed.

“perhaps followed by automatic transfer to a more rigorous facility”

LMFAO.

Which “more rigorous facility” do you have in mind?

something unpleasant, daggy uniforms, a cross between a prison and a boot camp. High walls, someone collecting them in the morning to go. make the normal school seem very pleasant when they can go back.

Just a thought.

moneypenny26128:12 pm 28 Oct 10

Huh.

Why would any self-respecting shop keeper refuse a sale? (Unless it is selling cigarettes and alcohol to a minor)

A child’s money is as good as her parents. What kind of business are Zed’s constituents in?

Flay Zed for introducing an amendment bill if you like, but what is he meant to do? The Libs aren’t part of the Government, so they can’t tell the Education Department what to do.

Even if a minor policy change makes better sense than a law change, introducing legislation is the own course of action available to the Libs (apart from whingeing).

the concept of incentive is randian nonsense.

@ #7 vesuvius has quite rightly blown up…

What next? A vigilante force of citizens to patrol streets and shopping centres.

mutley said :

bitzermaloney said :

Options:

1. Bring back the cain.

Not sure we’re Abel to do this.

straight to the pool room… 😉

mutley said :

Not sure we’re Abel to do this.

😀

> Automated emailing of parents when kids miss classes would be a good start

They already do this….at least at our son’s (public high) school.

bitzermaloney said :

Options:

1. Bring back the cain.

Not sure we’re Abel to do this.

That JB is a lot more intelligent than Zed Ess had been established long ago, but the flaw with his plan is that it would require moving our Industrial Revolution school system into the Knowledge Economy rather more quickly than had been anticipated; they wanted another century or two for that…

I don’t see what the fuss is all about really, the Principle just wanted the community to play a part in removing the incentive for kids to wag.

From what I understand, most of the businesses agreed until that douche running Kingsley’s managed to make the Human Rights element work in his favour – no such regard for the human rights abuses inflicted on those who eat his road kill .. oops, I mean (battery) chickens .. though.

The original plan was initiated by the school and the parents so this isn’t a ‘nanny state’ argument, the Liberals are just running with it because this is the sort of policy they thrive on.

I for one think it’s not such a bad idea, and that Kingsley guy – using diabetic kids as an argument in his favour .. oh, what a humanitarian. No doubt, when said diabetic child comes in desperate for an orange juice, his humanitarianism won’t prevent him from charging them for it.

I think that people are reading into this the wrong way. The Canberra Liberals want to [i]allow[/i] shopkeepers the [i]choice[/i] of whom they wish to serve, if the child is clearly of school age, and it’s during school hours. Zed is not trying to enforce this upon Canberra business – just allowing the option.

The Human Rights commissioner here in the ACT apparently stated that it impacted on the human rights of these schoolkids… bit of overkill I would think.

The problem with JBs plan is that many of these parents simply do not care. So a great alternative is to [i]allow[/i] those business owners, who don’t like to see their tax money going down the truancy drain, to take some small part in the hope that these kids will simply be starved of stuff to do outside of school, and thus return to school instead.

That’s my take on things anyway.

when I was in year 11/12, I was allowed to wander the streets during school hours.

is it a business’ problem to deal with, kids who for whatever unknown-to-the-retailer reason are not at school when they appear to be of an age that means they probably might be supposed to attend one?

someone comes into my business, offers me lawful tender in fair exchange as a contract to purchase my proffered goods to said person. problem again here..?

aren’t there real problems for the government to address? like, i was overcharged five dollars for a pizza once…

Chop71 said :

OMG, even i’d pick school over Kingsleys rabbit cough cough … I mean chicken

Why insult a rabbit? What did it ever do to you????

So, lets say my child has to leave school early one day to attend….oh lets say a dental appointment… having been given a clean bill of dental health by the dentist, said child meanders through the local shops and decides to give themselves a treat…. so the shop keeper will not serve them??? Becuase ?????

Or

My child leaves school early, with her parents permission, to attend a function or do undertake a task at the shops on behalf of her bed-ridden parent. The Chemist refuses to serve her and thus the sick parent is unable to get medication (not prescription!!!)…

Any shopkeeper out there who ‘refuses’ to serve anybody, based upon their age, time of day etc had better be ready to face legal action for descrimination… irrespective of what ZED say’s…

bitzermaloney1:52 pm 28 Oct 10

Options:

1. Bring back the cain.
2. Send them to boarding school.
3. Compulsory National Service.

and if it doesn’t work on the kids, inflict it on the parents.

far_northact1:50 pm 28 Oct 10

These kids are probably better off out there anyway – since the ACT schools seem to be unable to control them. Case in point: my son goes to a high school where one of his ‘friends’ bashed him. The kid had posted on facebook the night before about it and there was a group of kids wandering the grounds at lunch time – very excited to see it followed through. Nothing happened to those children involved. i.e. no suspension etc. But this is a school where beating up a teacher with a golf club and destroying school property only gains you a short-term suspension.
(thats not to say I don’t agree that parents should be involved in truancy/other behaviour – but if you saw some of these “parents” you would know it’s a waste of time).

kids wag school, always have, always will. Maybe if perhaps they made school interesting it would have an effect.

let’s make everybody deal with this problem instead of having the kids parents get involved

Wha? I thought canberra kids were allowed to wander the streets during the day. At least HS and college?

OMG, even i’d pick school over Kingsleys rabbit cough cough … I mean chicken

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