Jailed for working too hard

Now there are 31,000 signatures and counting on a petition to reconsider the case of Diane Tran. She’s a junior at Willis High School, near Houston, taking what sounds like a pretty challenging course load.

“Dual credit U.S. History, English, college Algebra, Spanish AP,” says Tran.

And her reward:

“She spent the night here in the Montgomery County Jail after the judge threw her in there for excessive truancy,” says a news report.

You see Diane Tran says her parents, out of the blue, one day decided to get divorced and moved out of state, abandoning Diane and her siblings. SO the two jobs she had to get to support the family, and her course load, left her so tired she missed ten days of school in six months, so the school reported her and the judge jailed her — because as he says the law is the law.”

“A little stay in a jail for one night, it’s not a death sentence,” says the judge.

No, it’s not a death sentence, it just seems, what’s the word — stupid.

The judge, you see, didn’t know the details of the case– so KHOU reporter Sherry Williams filled him in.

Williams: Can anything be done to revoke this?

Judge: I haven’t thought on that issue, because it turns me really soft.

The judge is worried it might leave him with a reputation for being soft. This IS Texas, remember.

He’s worried about what happens the NEXT time a truant student comes in and says, hey your honor, you let that girl off — what about me? I’ve got a hard life too.

Hmmm. Well, suppose the judge says, oh, so you’re an honor student taking two dual credit courses, college level algebra, and AP Spanish, and working two jobs because your parents up and walked away one day?

I’ll tell you what’s soft — not issuing a bench warrant to drag those divorced parents back to Texas and find out what THEY were thinking.