Omaha daily bee., 1903-02-17
SCHOOL DIRECTORS ALARMED
Truant Officer Legislation May Make Their
Work Hazardous
ARE TELLING BoDwlLL THEIR TROUBLES
County superintendent of Public In
structIon Hears of the Hnrdships
of Enforcing Compulsory
Education Law.

Directors Of the country school districts
are alarmed. Several have informed f. J.
Bodwell. county superintendent OF public
instruction, that the proposed truant officer
legislation will make Il necessary for them
TO resign, or to leave their districts, which
would be the same thing In effect. They
AFFIRM they are rlsking not only their pub
lie standing, but their physical well being
when they attempt to perform their full
duty.
The present law requires that in districts
containing thirty-ive or fewer children Of
school age Is 20 21 years) there must be
school at least three months of the year;
that in districts having between thirty-hve
and 100 children Of school age there must
be school six months OF the year and that
in districts having more than 100 children
there must be school nine months in the
year.
CompuIsion and Penalty.
It requires also that each child between
and IA years Of age must attend at least
two-thirds Of the time the district is re-
quired 70 have school and provides that
when the monthly report Of the teacher
makes It apparent to the county superin-
tendent that a child is in danger Of falling
short OF the required number of days in at
L6nudnC6 uH tune super lhlthuthNJ hhdii
notify the school director, who acts as tru-
ant oficer when no special truant officer
has been elected, and such director shall
serve notice upon the parents. Failure to
comply with this notice makes II necessary
for the director to have the parents or
guardians or custodians of the child appear
before a magistrate, by whom they may be
fined from s. to $25.
The vital difference between this present
law and The proposed law is that in the
latter there is a penalty also for derelictlon
on the part of the director acting as truant
of1cer. II he fails to lead the derelict par
ents into court be may be fined as heavily
rs are the parents.
what Might Occur.
What this means to the country schoo,
director is not realized until one remembers
that IL may necessitate his mixing in the
family affairs Of his nearest neighbor and
making the latter a heap of trouble. Fol
instance, Director Hezekiah Haymaker'i
wife gets sick and Mrs. Timothy TalitimbeI
comes over and takes care of her TIVE
weeks, keeping her own daughters out o
school to do the work at the Talltimbel
home. Then the next Monday Directo
Hezekiah Haymaker, full of gratitude to tn
Talltimbers, receives from the county su
perintendent a notice that the Tailtimbe
girls are shy on days in school and that 1
is UP to him to bring Mr.. and Mrs. Tall
timber into court and have them fined /
they don't make amends. II he fails to d.
this he is himself subject to fine. And h
doesn't get a cent additional for acting a
truant %oficer, either!
Throws Director Over Fence.
This imaginary example illustrates hov
embarrassing may be the task. There ar
other real cases to show that It may b.
dangerous, also. One of Superintendent
Bodwell's latest callers was a very small
and short-armed director who had just beeI
to serve notice on a large and long-armel
German farmer Of his district. The Ger
man father had an idea that his daughter
were his own property and that he coul
school them or not as he wished. The small
director commenced to explain, and perhap
expostulate, and was forthwith lifted higI
In the air and set down on the opposite sid
OF the fence with such violence that hi
teeth ratified and his whole interior assImi
lating equipment disturbed and thrown GU
Of gear. He told the superintendent tina
his district can either get a new director o
send out a regiment OF cavalry to accom-
aany him on his official errands. Superin
tendent Bodwell says that while the matte
10 ludicrous in one light II is really yer
serious when looked at in another.