Should A Law Strip Driver's Licenses From Teens Who Skip School?

"PRBot II" (prbot2)
12/26/2013 at 14:41 • Filed to: news watch, news dump

Legislation proposed in Lansing, Michigan would take away driver's licenses from students repeatedly absent from school. But is it likely to keep students from playing hooky?

Representative Andy Schor of Lansing introduced two bills last week in the Michigan state House to deter teens from cutting class. "Driving is a privilege and one that young people treasure, making it a good way to motivate them to stay in school." Schor said.

So how would it work? Basically, this new legislation would have judges notifying the secretary of state of students that are skipping school. The secretary of state would have to suspend the driver's licenses of students found by a circuit court to be willfully and repeatedly absent from schools for six months.

According to Schor,

"Schools have truancy plans in place, and this will be another way to ensure that students are in the classrooms. Driving is a privilege, and there is no bigger incentive to most teens than being able to drive. With state law now requiring students to be in school until age 18, we have one more tool to ensure that they are in school and learning."

And in cases where a student hasn't started driving yet? He or she would be temporarily denied a license.

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DISCUSSION (32)

Thunder-Lips > PRBot II
12/26/2013 at 14:43

This works right up until a young girl has an baby, and boom days of school will be missed....

EL_ULY > PRBot II
12/26/2013 at 14:44

a belt or foot to the ass works just fine :]

Kinja'd!!!

offroadkarter > PRBot II
12/26/2013 at 14:47

thats really fucking stupid, by the time someone is old enough to drive (in most places), they are old enough to legally drop out of high school. They are old enough to decide if they want to throw their life away at that point or not.

MonkeePuzzle > PRBot II
12/26/2013 at 14:49

love and logic (think that's what it's called) suggests that punishment should fit the crime to best teach a child. Taking away a license, while a very strong and impactful punishment, will likely not teach the child to not skip school because it is not directly linked in their little, still developing (research suggests that logic and decision making is one of the last parts of a brain to develop) brains

Goshen, formerly Darkcode > PRBot II
12/26/2013 at 14:51

Is high school mandatory in the US?

Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura > PRBot II
12/26/2013 at 14:52

Dear Rep. Schor:

Worry about fixing Detroit before you worry about kids, mmkay?

PRBot II > Goshen, formerly Darkcode
12/26/2013 at 14:53

Not necessarily. Although it's not very popular, home schooling is still an option.

EL_ULY > offroadkarter
12/26/2013 at 14:53

very true, but as my dad says ( in Spanish ), "one you go more than 5 years without asking us for money, then yes, you have finally become an adult. If not, your ass and my belt are still best friends"

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > offroadkarter
12/26/2013 at 14:53

You're right. They should amend it that dropouts have to wait until they're 18 to drive again.

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > PRBot II
12/26/2013 at 14:54

likely to keep students from playing hookey? No, it's like to get more kids to drive w/o a license.

HammerheadFistpunch > Goshen, formerly Darkcode
12/26/2013 at 14:54

Amazingly... yes , for the most part.

I think its silly, but there you have it.

Ian Duer (320b) > PRBot II
12/26/2013 at 14:55

We lost our parking privileges at my high-school if we cut class. Which meant riding the bus. It was a pretty good deterrent.

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > PRBot II
12/26/2013 at 14:56

I know I'm supposed to be all "People have a right to drive!" But I think people should have more responsibility once they drive. And requiring them to be in school is the perfect way to ease them into that.

offroadkarter > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
12/26/2013 at 14:56

I don't think it really matters at that point, drop outs need to get to their minimum wage jobs somehow, a car is usually the answer

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > offroadkarter
12/26/2013 at 15:00

I just think it would be a good encourager to stay in school and better oneself.

Ian Duer (320b) > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
12/26/2013 at 15:15

I usually stay out of stuff like this but screw it. You really think that if all the consequences now don't stop someone from dropping out that losing their license till 18 is going to? I'm going to lose points for saying this but I'm not so sure those under 18 should have a license in the first place.

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > Ian Duer (320b)
12/26/2013 at 15:24

I can't condone that kind of thinking. Agism never helped anyone. 16 is the perfect age for learning to drive because you're still within your parents grasp. Making people wait till they're 18 means you're basically handing a kid a license as they're leaving for college with no real prior experience or means to tether themselves to reality. You need a younger licensing age so that you can take those steps one at a time.

Ian Duer (320b) > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
12/26/2013 at 15:33

I knew I shouldn't have posted it. Now I'm getting called ageist, that's pretty damned close to an ad hominum. You are insinuating that I am too old to remember what it's like to be that age. I'm the perfect age to remember and still see how far up my ass my head was then.

I saw plenty of students at my university that didn't have cars or licences. Further there was zero relation between having a car and which students at 18 had their heads "tethered to reality." Some people are more with it at that age than others, and most college students are "still within their parents grasp," in every meaningful way except physically.

wacopalypsenow > PRBot II
12/26/2013 at 16:14

I don't think teens should be able to drive anyway. They suck at it. Plus, I can't fuck 16 year olds, so why should they be allowed to fuck up my car with their YOLO driving habits?

PRBot II > wacopalypsenow
12/26/2013 at 16:24

There are actually more states that have 16 as the age of consent than 18. I'm not sure what that really means, though.

Fox > PRBot II
12/26/2013 at 16:59

One of my best friends would skip class a lot to pick-up hours at work. His dad was nowhere to be found and his mom had been on disability for years. He had 2 brothers (twins, age 6-7) and a sister (age 9-10) that he had to support basically on his own.

The teachers were all aware of his situation and would help by cooking the attendance books and letting him make-up tests, quizzes, ect.

I couldn't imagine taking his driver's license for making that decision.

PRBot II > Fox
12/26/2013 at 17:09

Wow. And in today's economy, I'm willing to bet a lot of students might be in a similar situation. I could never support a law that might be detrimental to the people that find themselves in these situations, and hopefully it doesn't get passed in Michigan.

ChrisVette > PRBot II
12/26/2013 at 18:41

As a highschool student who skips class. No. We shouldn't lose our license.

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > Ian Duer (320b)
12/26/2013 at 19:00

Hey man, don't take anything I said personally. I'm not saying you're "wrong", but the fact of the matter is the average person (at least in VA where I live) has their license before they go to college. And I just think it's safer to allow people to get their license younger when they can still be taught and supervised by their parents.

Ian Duer (320b) > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
12/26/2013 at 19:49

A word of advice. Accusing some one of being ageist is like accusing someone of being racist, sexist, etc. It most often will cause someone to take it personally. Water under the bridge though.

There have been studies showing that teenagers' brains are not fully developed. Statistically, under a certain age people have trouble telling the difference between fear and aggression in facial expressions, probably related to why gang violence is such a problem. Also empathy has yet to be fully developed. "Superman Syndrome" etc the list goes on.

I wasn't really suggesting changing the driving age I was trying to provoke a reaction, and considering you resorted to the ageist thing, I suppose it was successful.

I think that you are confusing punishment with encouragement. Taking someone's license away till 18 for dropping out doesn't encourage them to stay in school, it punishes them for leaving. They will already have a very hard time getting back on track as it is. People who have not left the beaten path often do not understand what life is like for those who do.

I was very lucky that I managed to go on to earn a college degree after dropping out of high-school (for reasons that are irrelevant here other than to say it had nothing to do with laziness or disregard for arbitrary rules that would have punished me any more for doing so.) I know I am a rare case because I happened to be smart enough to make up for lost time.

The last thing the world needs is policies to further hurt people that have to make hard or even bad decisions. Helping them figure out how to get back on track is more important. I managed to figure it out but I know I was lucky enough to have a better than average ability to figure things out. Given how much trouble I witnessed some high-school graduates have in college, I can only imagine what it would be like for an average person who did not complete it and wants to better their life.

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > Ian Duer (320b)
12/26/2013 at 20:37

Yes, but those same studies also show that after those things solidify in the brain, it also makes it harder to learn. And being that in today's world driving is almost not a choice unless you live in a huge metropolis, it's a skill that should be taught earlier instead of later. It's like learning a foreign language. And you can't extend the age difference between the learners age and DL age. For Americans that's just dangling the carrot and won't lead to any good progress.

Ian Duer (320b) > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
12/26/2013 at 20:49

Like I said I wasn't really suggesting raising the driving age. I find it funny that you were the guy suggesting stripping it till 18 as a penalty and now you're talking about how important it is to learn early. Seems contradictory.

My point, which I was getting at very badly, was about not penalizing at the state level something that many schools already have consequences for. My high-school revoked parking privileges for students who cut class which meant they had to take a bus. It worked very well, but only on those students from families that were well enough off for the kids to have a car to take to school, usually the ones already most likely to succeed, the kind where parents would already revoke the keys if the kid cut school. I think trying to legislate it at a state level is useless.

MTY85 > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
12/26/2013 at 21:20

So how are dropouts supposed to get to school OR a job if they can't drive until they're 18?

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > MTY85
12/26/2013 at 22:11

You must have misread what I put. I said 18 for dropouts. Any good Jalop would finish school and be able to get their license at the normal age.

MTY85 > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
12/26/2013 at 22:14

But you don't need to finish school to get a license, and any REAL Jalop would get their license at 16 or 17 and immediately put together a crew of some friends with a beat up Honda for Lemons, and have two seasons under their belt before they were old enough to vote.

evilfacelessturtle (Hooning a Ford is Domestic Abuse) > Fox
01/11/2014 at 00:41

Agreed. And I'm sick of the ever increasing amount of laws designed to control the youth. Their lives are already controlled enough by their parents, it's not the school's place to govern their behavior. That's how we ended up with the school-to-prison pipeline in the south. I don't understand how people can justify taking away rights because of age and/or student status. Freedom of expression shouldn't go out the window as soon as you walk in a school.

evilfacelessturtle (Hooning a Ford is Domestic Abuse) > PRBot II
01/11/2014 at 00:42

Yep, in my state, it's okay to fuck a 16 year old, but if you take a picture, you're a pedophile.