Yessica Velasquez

Edu 210-1001
September 23, 2018

Portfolio #3
Ray Knight was a middle school student who was suspended for three days for having
unexcused absences. The school sent Ray with a note home and Ray as any middle school
student would do threw it away. School District require a phone call home and a letter to be
mailed to the parents. Ray’s parents were unaware of his suspension to do Ray throwing away
his letter and no phone call or mail was sent. On his first day of his suspension Ray was walking
to his friends house were he was accidentally shot and killed.
There is a court case between parents and the Los Angeles County school district in 2015
written by Sarah Tully in the ED SOURCE. This case is against the school district who parents
claim the school failed to notify parents of their rights to opt their children out of Commen Core-
Aligned test. Parents lawfully were to be notified and if given the chance these parents who have
opted out. They are filing against the school district because they want to help prevent this from
happening to any future parents. This also goes to show as for Rays parents case. If they were
given the notification if their sons absences they could have prevented his shooting from
happening.
There is a article perfectly describing how the School Notification System increases
parental engagement in schools. When parents notified with everything that is happening with
their child at school this leads to more parent engagment. This article also says how a student
does in school a lot of times depends on how involved they are in the childs education. Going
back to Rays case. If the parents was properly notified this would have prevented everything
from happening. They would have been aware of his suspension and could have done something
that would have also prevented his death of a shooting.
In a article written in The Charlotte Observer in August 16, 2018. A father of a 15 year
old High School student stood infant of a judge. This student missed 131 days into the school
year. The parents had been notified and school even provided with home visits leaving notes but
parents had not responded. With the law that if a child misses a certain amount of school days the
parent can go to jail. These parents were notified and still nothing was done. This student was

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going on days without school and It all leads back to parents. So whether or not the parents were
notified it doesn’t matter if the parents are not involved in their child education.
In a ABC News article titled “City Arrest Parents to fight Truancy” by Michele Norris in
Feb 28. Spoke on the matters of parents being arrested for the negligence of having more than 5
unexposed absences. Stated by an investigator with the States Attorneys’s office says “ This
whole process is to get the attention of the parents so they can work harder to keep those kids in
school regularly. If they are not there, they cant learn”. This goes to show that it all leads back to
the parents. In Ray knights case, it was unfortunate of his passing. I believe if his parents were
more involved into his students education it would have not allowed him to be skipping school in
the first place. This could have prevented him from even being suspended in the first place. I
blame parents for the negligence in their childs life.
In conclusion in my personal opinion, I believe that with or with out the notification.
Ray’s parents showed that they were not as involved or aware of anything that was going on with
Ray. It is also concerning on why in the first place lead to Ray missing school and why did he
feel like he couldn’t trust his parents to tell them he got suspended. I also believe that if parents
were more involved in parenting Ray would have had the parenting that school is important and
something that should not be taken lightly. Of course a letter of notification would have helped
parents be aware of what was going on but without them themselves showing concern in their
childs education. It is not the schools fault for Rays cause of death.



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REFERENCES

Lawsuit: Schools Failed To Inform Parents Of Right To Opt Out Of Tests

Sarah Tully - https://edsource.org/2015/lawsuit-schools-failed-to-inform-
parents-of-right-to-opt-out-of-common-core-aligned-tests/87041

Teen Has Missed 77 Days Of School. Will Threatening His Parents with Jail Help
Cms?
Michael Gordon - https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/education/
article208690904.html

City Arrests Parents To Fight Truancy

Michele Norris - https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=130460&page=1

School Notifications Systems Increase Parental Engagement in Small Schools

https://www.schoolcues.com/school-notifications-system-schoolcues.html

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