There is another thread (possibly zombified by now) regarding odd school rules. This question relates to a specific policy or group of policies that I seem to have a recollection of.
In the middle of the 1990’s, possibly in 1994, there was a rather large fuss regarding a revision or rewrite of the student code of conduct in Fairfax County, Virginia. Specifically, I remember that there was a document that itself was called simply “Code of Conduct” (the prior document might not have been called that). The controversial part was that certain behavior offenses committed by students carried fines against parents. So, for example, a punishment for a conduct violation might be 1 week detention for the kid and a $500 fine for parents. There were so many protests over this that the rules were revoked.
- Did this actually happen? It’s been over 15 years and I’m over twice the age I was back then. What was the legal theory they used to make the fines stick? Did they pass a municipal offense of “Being a parent with a misbehaving child”? Was it passed as a “bad kid tax” where you had to pay for how much detention your kid used, similar to how in the US you pay tax for every gallon of gas you buy.
- Has something similar ever happened elsewhere?