
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 21, 1995                   TAG: 9505190052
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BETH MACY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

WHEN YOU SPOT TRUANTS: WHAT YOU CAN DO

If you see a kid at the mall on a weekday who looks like he should be in school, notify mall security.

If you're a store owner who thinks a customer is a student skipping school, refuse to serve him.

``As a city, as a community, we need to respond better,`` says Patrick Henry High School counselor JoAnn Hayden, who offered the above tips. ``If our youth aren't strong, our community has had it.''

Roanoke City Schools accepts tips on suspected truants; call 981-2300 for the elementary-education office, 981-2876 for middle school and secondary.

Visiting teacher Sherwood Kasey believes it's never too late to get a kid back in school - the problem is, connecting with him once he's there.

``Businesses need to work with us better,'' offering vocational apprenticeships in fields such as food service, plumbing, construction and carpentry. Call 981-2876 if you're interested in helping mentor students or teach them trades.

``Getting kids to school is a community-school-

family relationship; the whole thing stems around working together,'' Kasey says.

``Because these kids will affect our community one way or the other, positive or negative.''

by CNB