The Oracle: How do you generally deal with truancy?

James Lubbe: When students are cutting class it’s recorded by the teachers. That goes into our database­—SASI is what it’s called, is our database—and anytime a student misses class it gets recorded in the SASI, which goes to the attendance office, and phone calls are made home letting parents know that they’re missing class. How we deal with it here in the office is once a student has four cuts we get a list of names and which period that they cut and then we go ahead and we call them in and we’ll place them on an attendance contract, when they have four cuts or more. Once they get placed on an attendance contract, one more cut after the attendance contract they’re dropped from the class, unless it’s a student who has an IEP (Individualized Education Plan). When they reach the attendance contract stage we have an attendance IEP meeting to go ahead and discuss the issues of why they’re cutting class. Other things that we can do is we call home to notify and talk to the parents, maybe even have a parent meeting. And if the student ends up getting dropped from classes, where they’re not taking five classes anymore, then the student can no longer be a student here at Gunn, because you have to be enrolled in five classes.

TO: Do you generally give students positive incentives to stay in class?

JL: Well, when we talk to students about cutting class, there are obviously reasons they don’t want to cut class, because they can get dropped from the class, and it affects their grades. But, the other thing also is when I talk to them, I try to encourage them, “You should be going to class, because when you’re going to class, you’re learning the material.”

TO: Is there a general attitude of truant students? Are they willing to change?

JL: That’s a good question—a lot of times it becomes habits and behaviors, and those things, when someone has a habit or behavior it is a hard thing to change. Sometimes I think it helps if a student actually does get dropped from a class for cutting, because they learn, “Oh, wow, consequences are real, this is really going to happen, I need to change my ways.” In fact, I was working with this student a lot during the first semester, and that student, he really does want to change. I can see changes that are taking place within him.

TO: What is your opinion on students that have to miss a lot of school for outside of school sports or chronic illnesses?

JL: Well, we all take an understanding if a student is ill and there’s something that they’re recovering from. Obviously, we want to work with them and help them, even though they’re missing class, and teachers as well, they’ll work with students. If they’re on a sports team or they have other extracurricular activities like choir or plays and they’re missing class, or YCS– they’ll take a trip, Service Day. So, if they have other outside activities, we encourage students to be involved in activities, and we think it’s great just as long as they can keep up on their academics, then missing class isn’t affecting them in a negative way.