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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 20, 1995                   TAG: 9509200034
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PARENT RIGHTS?

WHICH IS the sadder commentary on our time: that schools have to threaten some parents with fines to try to force them to take minimal interest in their children's conduct and progress, or that other parents, fearful that their "total parental responsibility" is being challenged, have sued the schools over the issue?

At issue is a pledge that the state this year is requiring parents to sign. In it, parents (1) agree that they have read and reviewed with their children the student code of conduct at the school they attend, and (2) acknowledge that they risk being fined if they refuse to meet with school officials if their children misbehave.

This is an unusual contract, to say the least. But it does not usurp any parental right, unless choosing to neglect their duty has some heretofore unknown constitutional protection.

Rather than eroding parental rights, the requirement seems a rather desperate attempt to thrust some of the responsibility for students' conduct back where it principally lies: at home.

That law-abiding, decent parents should want to instill their values in their children is not only understandable, but commendable. If all parents were not only law-abiding and decent, but also interested and energetic enough to monitor and guide their children's schoolwork and classroom behavior, there would be no problem of the sort that has prompted the state's heavy-handed demand for parents' attention.

What's the answer? One thing is for sure: It's not to make school-parent relations, via litigation, even more adversarial.

Roanoke County parents have sued the county School Board because they do not want to share authority over their child. Let's get real. Children are in school a good part or even most of their waking hours. Their parents aren't sitting beside them or following them from class to class. They are under their parents' authority to the extent that their parents have taught them to behave in certain ways even when they are away from home.

In school, they also are under the authority of school officials - as they should be. Schools have to provide a meaningful education in a safe and orderly environment for all students. Parents who send their kids to school are granting them the authority needed to achieve this, within reasonable bounds.

Parents who refuse to grant such authority can consider home-schooling. They shouldn't in any case regard children as property.

by CNB