A former chronic truant argues that accountability and personal motivation—not excuses—are the keys to getting students back in class.
Story By George Korda | Photography by R. Daniel Proctor
Appeared in Cityview Magazine, Vol. 42, Issue 5 (September/October 2026)
I was 17, standing in front of my Florida high school dean’s desk. I waited. He said, “You’re being suspended for three days.” My offense: skipping school. I said, “I didn’t come to school, and my punishment is that I can’t come to school?” I smiled. I thought he might come over the desk at me.
What makes me different from today’s Knox County’s chronic truants? Nothing. They, as I did, drill holes in their sinking academic ships while fooling themselves into thinking they’re on a pleasure cruise of not worrying about tests, homework, assignments, or being harassed by irritating teachers. Somehow, the kids think things will be fine. But the kids aren’t all right.
In my case, well-intended adults, wanting to help, showed empathy by saying poverty and family situation meant I was up against daunting negatives. But what I heard was that it wasn’t my fault. And I let them let me off the hook.
In 2026, there are adults – sometimes well-meaning, sometimes pursuing social or educational agendas – who tell kids they face potentially insurmountable obstacles because of race, poverty, gender, ethnicity, ancestry, or home situation. Unknown is how many kids listen and decide, why try? Others don’t care, because to them the future is what they’re going to do on the weekend.
Truancy under Tennessee state law is five unexcused absences in a school year; chronic absenteeism is missing 18 days. Tennessee Dept. of Education data show that between 2021 and 2024, Knox County had a three-year 19.4% chronic absentee rate – more than 11,000 students, on average, every year. Locally and nationally a stupefying number of kids are being disgorged from high schools who have no or few tools to exist in a 21st century economy.
In April 2026, Gov. Bill Lee signed House Bill 1823 into law, which assembles a new battery of truancy-related requirements for Local Education Agencies (LEA). Somehow this idea often takes root in public policy discussions: “if we only pass a law things will get better.” You (perhaps) can force some kids into classrooms, but you can’t make them think. It doesn’t improve education overall to inject into classrooms kids whose contribution is likely to be disrupting things.
When the situation descends to lawyers being involved, the truancy mess becomes even messier. Example: in 2014, the Center for Public Integrity unfairly pounded on Knoxville Juvenile Court Judge Tim Irwin for ordering into juvenile justice detention a girl found to be truant. The article reads as if she was forced into a Russian gulag, and what was needed were more laws, and more lawyers. In such situations the focus becomes the legal process. And nothing much changes for truant kids.
Having had personal experience with chronic truancy, I offer two suggestions as a pathway to a solution. Not the solution, but a solution:
In my case, my motivators were three-fold: ultimately a disgust at failing, a desire to live my religious principles, and a girl who had graduated – and I was still in high school. I graduated after an extra semester. I hadn’t distinguished myself academically and my mother had no money. I joined the Army. I took college classes at nights and on weekends, became a member of an academic honors society, was on the Dean’s List every term, and continued going to school after I was discharged. My Army experience and education have led to an interesting and rewarding career. And I married the girl.
For everyone who wants to do good for kids, don’t give them an excuse for failure. It can destroy them. Ultimately, everyone is responsible for their own decisions. Apply actor Denzel Washington’s words when he warned of such things in the movie “Remember the Titans,” in which he played a high school football coach:” You ain’t doing these kids a favor by patronizing them. You’re crippling them. You’re crippling them for life.”
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