Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SYRACUSE — While skipping class isn’t recommended for any student who wants to do well in school, not many think of truancy as criminal activity.
The LDS Seminary faculty at Syracuse High School, however, recently sent an email to parents of students reminding them that “any student caught at the high school during their seminary hour (would) receive a Trespassing Citation.”
The seminary faculty sent the email as a reminder from the school resource officer, who wished to remind parents and students of the consequences students would face if they were found cutting class.
Several parents who received the email found the policy more severe than anticipated, especially since trespassing is coded as criminal activity.
"A trespassing citation works just like any other citation. You have to go to the court and, most likely, pay a fine, talk to the judge about it,” Syracuse police detective Erin Behm said.
The email sent out was not a change in policy, but had always been part of the high school’s requirements regarding release time permissions and is a district-wide policy.
“(The) parents, when they sign them up for seminary, actually sign a contract and say, ‘Hey, you know if they’re caught in school during seminary hours, they get a trespassing ticket,’ and the parents actually sign it, along with the student,” Behm said. “So they’re well-aware. They may not have read it, which is unfortunate, however, they are told that.”
Students may receive permission from the school to leave campus for one of several reasons, Davis County School District spokesperson Chris Williams said, including LDS seminary.
The student can receive permission to leave campus to attend seminary, but they are required to be in the seminary building if they have received this permission. If they are on campus, they can receive a trespassing citation.
According to the Syracuse High School Handbook, “The first trespassing citation will be a verbal warning; subsequent citations may result in monetary fines.”
Williams said that, while students are at school, the school acts in the role of parent, or "in loco parentis."
"When students enter our school... we as educators are basically filling the role of parent, so we’re making sure they’re where they’re supposed to be, that they’re safe, that they aren’t somewhere where we don’t know where they are," Williams said.
Williams defended the school resource officer, saying the officer must have seen a growing problem on campus to have issued a reminder.
"He wouldn’t have sent this out if there wasn’t necessarily a problem existing. He must have seen something — must have seen quite a number of students who weren’t necessarily in the place that they should have been," Williams said.
"I’m not saying that it was necessarily release time for LDS seminary, it could be anything.... (but) students received permission to leave the campus for release time no matter what purpose that release time involves, they need to adhere to that agreement."
Liesl is a web reporter at KSL.com, section editor of KSL's Tech and Science section and a student at Brigham Young University. You can email her at lnielsen@deseretdigital.com.
