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British mom gets tagged for condoning truancy

Categories: Health & safety, Development, Media

Electronic tagging of parentsWhat do you do about a parent who let her children attend a maximum of 14 days out of a 179-day school year? Greater Manchester mom Barbara Woodall was sentenced to a parenting course - and was tagged with an electronic monitoring device to enforce a "curfew" upon her. According to Manchester Online, Ms. Woodall will receive her tag this weekend to ensure that she does not leave her home between 9pm and 7am. Woodall had previously been fined for allowing her children to be truant; the monitoring was viewed by all involved in the case as a last resort.

Should the state tag miscreant parents who fail to supply their kids with an education? I'm torn. The parent in me says, "way to go" - but the civil libertarian in me wants to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. (Yes, kind of hard in Britain, but you get my drift.) What say you, dear readers?



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