By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

There are lots of reasons why kids skip school. Sure, sometimes it's just because they're slackers. But sometimes it's much more complicated and malignant.

Sometimes it's because they're being kept home to babysit younger siblings or to take care of Mom when she's drunk.

Sometimes it's because the family is so messed up that the kid is essentially raising himself or being housed and occasionally fed by an older, not-yet-adult sibling.

Sometimes it's because they have to go live with Grandma or Auntie for a while until things cool down.

Sometimes it's because the bruises haven't faded from the last beating. Or it's about shame or guilt or frustration.

Lots of times, it's drugs.

And yeah, I'll say it: Sometimes it's because the schools have failed them horribly — failed to keep them safe from bullies, to protect them from demoralizing teachers, to engage them in anything meaningful.

The State House last week passed a measure that would allow schools to punish parents if a school administrative hearings officer finds the parent "had not used proper diligence to enforce the child's regular attendance at school."

Penalties would be attendance at a social service program or a maximum of 50 hours of community service at the school. (Yikes, do we really want work crews of bad parents roaming the campus, pulling weeds by the principal's office?!) The bill now goes to the Senate.

The goal is certainly worthwhile, but the approach just won't work for a lot of the kids with attendance problems. For a lot of them, punishing parents, suspending their driver's licenses and taking away extracurricular activities will make their already unmanageable lives more unlivable.

A couple of times this session, our Legislature, in an effort to do something to fix the schools other than really FIX them, have mistaken punishment for motivation.

Sure, sometimes the threat of punishment is a great incentive, but the problem of truancy has to do more with making it less difficult or awful or shameful for a kid to go to school, not more.

Why should a kid go back to school at all if it means detention for you and your parents picking up rubbish in the quadrangle? That sure makes dropping out seem like a better option.

The state is having a hard enough time educating our kids, and now they have to reform their parents?

A system already exists through family court for dealing with slacker parents who don't get their slacker kids to school. If the problem is a backlog at family court, then fix family court. Anyone who has ever spent any time in that sad, crowded hallway will tell you that there are just too many cases and not enough resources to handle them.

The best way to keep kids from skipping school is to give them something about school that they love, some wonderful thing that only school can provide, something so valuable to kids that they'll fight hell, high water or lousy parents to get themselves to class.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.