Introduction

The term “cutting classes” is the practice of missing a designated

class without permission. Another slang term for avoiding class
attendance is “skipping class” the official word for an intentional,
unauthorized absence from class is “truancy.” Truancy is any
intentional unauthorized or illegal absence from compulsory
education. It is absences caused by students of their own free will,
and usually does not refer to legitimate “excused” absences, such as
ones related to medical conditions. Truancy is usually explicitly
defined in the school’s handbook of policies and procedures. Some
children whose parents claim to homeschool have also been found
truant in the United States. Another term for truancy is also skipping
class
Students who attend school but do not go to classes are considered
cutting class. In some schools, cutting class may result in not being
able to graduate or to receive credit for class attended, until the time
lost to truancy is made up through a combination of detention, fines, or
summer school. In the United States truancy regulations are generally
enforced by school officials under the context of parental
responsibility, new automated calling systems allow the automated
notification of parents when a child is not marked present in the
computer and where law enforcement officers are present, the fine for,
“playing hooker” can range from $250 to as much as $500. About
12,000 students were ticketed for truancy in 2008 in Los Angeles,
Many states provide for the appointment of local truancy officers who
have the authority to arrest habitually truant youths and bring them to
their parents or to the school they are supposed to attend. Many
states also have te power to revoke a student’s driver’s license or
permit. Where it exists, a school truancy officer is often a constable or
sheriff, concurrently.

Background of the Study

There was a time when cutting classes was not an option for students
at NC State. It was no different from high school in that class
attendances was compulsory.

That is until a group of engineering students set out to change that in

1939, following a period of student unrest over how Chancellor J.W.
Harrelson treaded them. “Sensitive to outside criticism, and
determined that he knew what was good for the students even when
they did not, Harrelson promoted policies at the college that many
students compared to high school or military regulations,” according to
North Carolina State University: A Narrative History, by Alice Elizabeth
Reagan So on this day in 1939, the Student Welfare Committee went
on record as “being heartily in favor” of a proposal by Tau Beta Pi, an
engineering honor society, to establish something known as a Dean’s
List at State College, according to an account in the Technician. The
Dean’s List would recognize all juniors and seniors with a cumulative
average of a “B” or better, and exempt them from the rule requiring
compulsory class attendance. (There were apparently rules in place
that allowed for a limited number of class cuts for all students,
regardless of their scholastic standing.)

But the proposal needed the approval of the faculty before it could go
into effect have always looked upon the Engineering School as an
institution of higher learning and not as a penitentiary. It has always
seemed to me that after a man has been here for two years, if he does
not have enough send to attend his classes regularly, we are
spending our time trying to educate some rather worthless material.
Apparently van Leer’s colleagues in the faculty agreed, as they
approved the proposal about five weeks later, saying that students
who maintained an 85 average would be placed on a new Dean’s List
and allowed unlimited class cuts.

Significance of the Study This research paper is significant to us

because it reminds us of the effects of cutting classes.

This study is important to the following groups of people:

Parents: They will be able to guide their children so that they will stop
cutting their class.
Teachers: They will be able to discipline their students and at the
same time remind them of the negative effects of this in their study.
Students: They will be able to know the negative effects of cutting
classes.
Definition of Terms

Constable: Is a peace officer with limited policing authority, typically in

a small town

Sheriff: Is a law-enforcement officer of a county or other civil

subdivision of a state who is responsible for keeping the peace

Detention: It is a maintenance of a person in custody or confinement

or a form of punishment in which a pupil is detained after school
Truancy: The act of staying away from school without good reason