Humility

noloitering:

This is so stupid. The state of Texas is apparently arresting students for things like “spraying perfume on themselves during class.” Other jail-worthy offenses are leaving class, being tardy, being absent, or swearing. The kids actually get arrested. There’s a police center right by, or in the school and they get sent to a juvenile detention center. If they’re not arrested, then they’re slapped with a heavy fine that they have to show up to court and pay for.

In 2010, the police gave as many as 300,000 Class C misdemeanors to children as young as 6 in the state of Texas.

Now, as explained above, this looks like a really pathetic way of generating revenue. Texas has low taxes, but their money needs to come from somewhere, right? That’s why they raise fine prices and and fine more people. So that they can make more money. This is also the reason why red light tickets here in California can cost upwards of $500 sometimes. 

This saves even MORE money down the road because, once you have a record of going to jail, you can’t apply for federal financial aid. This means you can’t take out government aid for college later down the road.

Now, what about these exorbitant fines? What if you’re from a low income family that can’t pay for a $1200 truancy ticket? You have the option of putting off that fine until after you turn 17 and when you turn 17, you get sent to jail. I have a friend in Texas right now who turned 17 last year and had to do 11 days in jail immediately after his birthday because of a truancy ticket he got his sophomore year.

What the hell is going on here.