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Detroit prosecutor proposes sending parents who skip school conferences to jail

Listen up, Detroit parents: If Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy gets her way, you may be serving time in the slammer if you skip your child's parent-teacher conference.According to this story in today’s Detroit News, Worthy is making the bold proposal to help call attention to the link between parental involvement and youth crime. Her plan would require parents to attend at least one conferen

Listen up, Detroit parents: If Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy gets her way, you may be serving time in the slammer if you skip your child's parent-teacher conference.

According to this story in today’s Detroit News, Worthy is making the bold proposal to help call attention to the link between parental involvement and youth crime. Her plan would require parents to attend at least one conference per year or face three days in jail. Sound extreme? Given Detroit’s low graduation rate and ongoing crime problem, the prosecutor hopes her controversial idea will spark new dialogue and get more parents involved by any means necessary.

But while Worthy’s proposal is meant more as a conversation-starter than a genuine call for incarceration, the plan has garnered its fair share of detractors. A Livonia Public Schools board member called it “the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard in my life,” and the board president of the Detroit Public Schools Board of Education said he doesn’t “necessarily agree we need to be punishing.”

If passed, Worthy’s law would be the first of its kind in the nation. Parents, what do you think of this law? Do believe it’s the government’s place to get this involved? Do you think the proposal is realistic? Do you agree with Worthy’s intentions? Share your thoughts in the comment section.