ST. CHARLES, Mo. – A Missouri mother faces legal action for all the days of school her son has reportedly missed.
Prosecutors have charged the woman, Jessica Pence-Nicholson, with educational neglect, according to KTVI.
Court documents show her 9-year-old son had a pattern of poor attendance — only showing up to Stephen Blackhurst Elementary School about 50 percent of the time between August and December of 2017.
“They have missed a lot, yes,” Pence-Nicholson admitted. “I don’t know how to explain a lot, but quite a bit.”
The charges are rare, according to KTVI, and Pence-Nicholson said she’s “shocked.”
Officials say the boy’s absence is part of a larger pattern dating back to kindergarten, and the boy’s two siblings have also missed a large number of school days. Pence-Nicholson explained those absences by citing deaths in the family, illness and a dangerous situation with her ex-husband which has caused them anxiety.
“I wish it was not like this for their lives. I wish it was better,” she told KTVI.
The City of St. Charles School District says school officials are required to report suspected cases of educational neglect to the state’s child abuse and neglect hotline, at which point the Missouri Department of Social Services investigates.
“Regular attendance is essential to a child’s success in school and our staff work diligently to monitor student attendance and follow state law.
We also do our very best to work with families to address any hardships that may be preventing regular student attendance.
It is only after all interventions fail that a hotline call is initiated.”
The Missouri Department of Social Services placed the family on supervised probation but dropped the case in May. The criminal charges were filed after a school resource officer with the St. Charles Police Department brought the investigation to prosecutors.
I skipped school from 4th grade through my senior year, easily 50% of the time. Finally, in 12th grade, in April, they says to me they says, “You have to quit school or be expelled.” 3 months left and they decide to discipline me!
I had to promise on stacks of bibles as high as the sky that I’d not be tardy for a single class, let alone miss a moment of the rest of the school year. They claimed it was too much and I’d never be able to not skip school.
I graduated on time despite their efforts and to spite them for their efforts.
Public educationing circa 1975
Somehow I knew as an adolescent that school was wrong. Turns everybody into robotic conditioned imbeciles who can’t think on their feet, just do as told.
Land of the free home of the brave?
Dang, we are so occupied by commie nuts!
It’s little wonder they didn’t execute my parents for all the time I was dragged away from school to go hunting,fishing,camping or rock climbing…………. I had parents that loved to play hooky. nothing can prove love more than time shared.
I suspect the mother was a rechargeable battery.
The only thing I learned in school looking back retrospectively.
Is how to make a bong.
Try to bang chks.
And hide my weed from my dad.
So much for hard work being beat into me.
Mom has a good defense right here: “When he wasn’t in school, he actually learned things”.
The prosecution response: “But no one taught him about the wonders of homosexuality”.
LMAO!