Dallas Truancy Court Tracks Lazy Kids Using GPS

Being late to school is one thing, waking up at 2 p.m. and rolling in to class is quite another. Apparently, this was the daily routine of Jaime Pacheco, a 15-year-old high school freshman at Bryant Adams High School in Dallas. Naturally, this routine created problems for both his family and the school system, so drastic action was necessary. However, instead of juvenile detention, a truancy court judge sentenced him to enroll in a pilot program that requires truant students to be electronically monitored using a GPS system.

Since Pacheco started wearing the monitor on April 1st, he has had perfect attendance, and many other kids in the program have experienced similar results. Now, school systems across Texas are planning to expand the program and drastically increase the number of kids hooked up with the monitors next year. Yet another example of GPS scaring kids straight. [NYT]