Mother indicted because of truant daughter

A mother faces 136 criminal counts for failing to make her daughter attend school.

The defendant, Leisa King, has been indicted on 136 counts of violation of the school attendance law in the case of her sophomore daughter who missed most of the past school year.

According to District Attorney General Dale Potter, the 136 counts reflect 136 separate days during the 2005-06 school year in which the girl was not present in class. Each count is a misdemeanor which carries a potential jail term and fine. The counts include truancy by the teen beginning in August of last year and continuing through April of this year.

King was indicted after school attendance officer Jane Allison took the case to prosecutors and then the grand jury. While other parents have been charged for failing to make their children attend class, the 136 counts is believed to be the most extensive allegation of truancy ever brought against a local parent.

?We are aware of no adequate excuse why the girl was not in school,? Potter said of the case against the mother. ?We are aware of just a few days this past school year when the child was actually in class.?

King is one of a handful of parents who have been brought before the court this year for failing to keep their children in school. Most cases are settled in General Sessions Court since the crime is a misdemeanor. However, the number of counts and the long history of truancy of the girl prompted prosecutors to take the case before circuit court.

In General Sessions Court, a variety of punishments, including jail, have been used. Along with jail, parents have been made to attend school with their children or pay a fine for each day their child is absent.

Last year, Judge Larry Ross ruled a mother of three truant children, all of whom had missed around two weeks, would spend a day in jail for each day her child missed in the future. Just prior to that point, a parent was given 30 days in jail for a truant child.

Under school system policy, a child is considered truant once he or she has collected five or more unexcused absences.