Honor Students Horror

Diane Tran a high school student in Texas was sentenced yesterday to a night in jail and no it was not for stealing or shop lifting.  It was for being too tired to attend her classes while having to help support her two younger siblings after their parents left them. 

Diane Tran

Reports stated that, "Tran, who works full-time at a dry-cleaning business and part-time for a wedding planner, has been supporting her brother and sister since her parents separated and her mother moved away.  Houston defense attorney Ned Barnett on Tuesday called the ruling "outrageous" and said "a little discretion should have been used" in the teenager's case. "It doesn’t take much discretion to have sympathy for Miss Tran," Barnett said. "To lock her up is just outrageous."

The real story here should not be Tran's exhaustion and inability to attend her classes, but the overall failure of the local school system to recognize the teenagers current situation and offer suggestions and help her to select an option that was best for her so she could finish her education and keep up in her courses.

Judge Moriarty told a local news station that, "If you let one run loose, what are you going to do with the rest of them? Let them go, too?"

This is clearly not the regular case of a teenager "running loose" as the Judge put it, but a teenager who is in need of parental and adult guidance during this difficult time, but it seems all they know how to do is to punish her for their mistakes once again. 

If you would like to read more about Diane Tran and the Judges decision in her case please go to:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/28/texas-honor-student-jailed-for-missing-too-much-school/#ixzz1wItUGCXO