Intoday’s society, it is quite common for the government to control — excuse me — regulate how many activities are conducted. They make sure children stay in school until they are 16 years old, they have laws concerning how old you must be to sit in the front seat of a car and, of course, the speed limit is enforced to make sure to keep everyone in that car safe.
Feeling under the law is a common thought process for the average citizen, but what happens when the law tries to control the idea behind good and bad parenting?
A current court case in Michigan brings this concept to light; a prosecutor who is representing the case believes it should be the state’s right to provide punishment for parents who do not attend their child’s parent-teacher conference. She sees a jail term of three days as a suitable punishment for this “crime.”
Kym Worthy is the prosecutor involved in this absolutely ridiculous case. In her interview on Good Morning America, she expressed her idea to the public.
Worthy tried to sweeten the ludicrous idea by reassuring many that this will not effect parents with smart kids, or kids that stay out of trouble, even those parents who have good reasons for not being at the conference.
But the truth is, people will still go to jail for not attending a meeting! It’s like requiring your dad to have a note to go to the potty; it’s absurd. The concept behind the law is that it will ensure a more stable home-help situation for students who are struggling to make the grades.
I hate to break it to Miss Worthy, but just because a student’s parents show up one night out of probably the entire year to meet with a teacher, does not mean they are doing anything productive with their kids in the home.
I respect the intent of this law, in the sense that they want to see parents become better raisers of children. I grew up with extremely involved parents who did participate in my activities, and I believe that played a role in my success.
However, that doesn’t mean that as great as they were they made it to every meeting, performance or game I had. The truth of the matter is, why should the government be allowed to punish parents just because it doesn’t “think” parents are doing a good job with their children.
Unfortunately, the parents who will suffer from this law are probably the ones who must work the hardest just to provide a home for their children.
What will be said to the single mother who works three jobs to keep a roof over her family’s head and food on the table? Is it just that we throw her in jail because she couldn’t attend one meeting due to her nearly impossible schedule? I think not.
Granted, Worthy does say that inability to get off work, or even illness, will be taken into consideration, but are those excuses actually going to be enough at the time?
It befuddles me that any educated person would actually think this is OK to do.  To support the punishment of people not necessarily doing anything wrong is exactly what our justice system is to be against.
I would hope that when this idea is under review, those in higher authority will see how “out there” it is and dismiss it.
To be told how to parent is a violation of our rights as citizens of the United States. Simply because you cannot make the time in your schedule to make it to a meeting does not justify throwing you into jail.
Our jails and prisons are already overflowing with people. I would rather keep the real criminals off the streets, not fight for a cell with the parents of our community’s children.
Sarah Ulmer is a sophomore majoring in communication. She can be contacted at [email protected].