
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 15, 1990                   TAG: 9005150498
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TROMPETER/ UNDIVIDED ATTENTION FOR TRUANTS

A JUDGE who hears juvenile cases often has return visits from teen-agers, and often watches helplessly as the offenses committed grow progressively more serious. A youngster who starts out in front of the judge for skipping school may end up doing time for a felony.

The chief Juvenile Court judge in Roanoke has an idea for devoting more attention to youngsters while their problems are still disciplinary, rather than criminal. It's an idea that ought to receive serious attention.

Judge Philip Trompeter says he's seeing a number of "hard-core" truants in court. He wants the schools, courts and social-service agencies to work together to form a safety net to keep kids in school. That may help them stay out of court.

Trompeter is forming a group to lay plans for the team that coordinates resources available to deal with students who chronically miss school. The law allows the court to declare a chronic truant a child "in need of supervision." Once such a declaration is made, the team of school officials and representatives of government agencies decides what services may help the child.

At a meeting he called last week, the judge urged educators and social-service agency representatives to throw out their old ways of dealing with truancy.

One old idea may be that energy devoted to a child who skips school frequently is wasted. For Trompeter's approach to work, a strong commitment is needed by everyone involved.

Of 49 juveniles screened by the truancy team last year, 22 had patterns of truancy that could be traced to kindergarten. Government doesn't have all the answers for troubled children who skip school. But it ought to be giving them the answers it does have.

by CNB