For chronic truants, a GPS program can help them make the grade

02-25-2011

By Nicole Santa Cruz/Los Angeles Times

Ryan Ramos' 6 a.m. routine used to consist of the usual: a shower, breakfast, then a walk to the bus stop. But now, the 14-year-old eighth-grader has another activity: punching an identification code into a cell phone-size GPS device. Five times a day — when he wakes up, when he gets to school, after lunch, after school and at 8 p.m. — Ramos is required to enter his code into the machine. If he's not where he's supposed to be, the GPS provides a way to find him. Ramos and 31 other students in the Anaheim Union High School District are participating voluntarily in what some consider a cutting-edge solution to the age-old problem of truancy. Backers of the program hope that by giving parents and school officials a better idea of where students are — and by giving students a visible incentive to resist peer pressure to skip classes — the GPS can succeed where curfews, strict punishments and even fines for parents have failed. The concept has critics who object to the Big Brother aspects of satellite monitoring. (more...)

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