JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Calling it a message to local parents, the State Attorney’s Office is serving warrants on 44 parents for failing to send their kids to school.
More than a dozen parents have already been arrested. On Wednesday, Action News spoke to one of the arrested parents.
Because his child missed so many days of school, the local dad had police beating on his door this week.
"The door gets kicked in. I have a handcuff on my arm. She's screaming. I'm like, 'can we please go outside so my daughter don't see this?'" said Justin Frier.
Frier was arrested and charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a first-degree misdemeanor.
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His son missed so many days of school, the case got sent to law enforcement.
"I was like, 'what am I being arrested for?' He's like, 'your child missing school,'" Frier said.
Frier wasn't alone. Action News went to the State Attorney's Office to hear from the director of the truancy program that organized a sweep of 18 parents' arrests this week for the same charge.
"It sends a message we are not playing around with the situation in these schools," said Alan Louder of the State Attorney's Office.
According to the State Attorney's Office, only a small percentage of thousands of truancy cases in Duval end in arrest, a last resort after several attempts at intervention.
"You find out a lot of times the grandparent dropped out in sixth grade, the mom made it to sixth, maybe eighth. So the kid really doesn't have a chance," Louder said.
Frier told Action News he's homeless and showed us the Diamond Inn on the Westside where he's been staying with his two kids.
He claims his son missed countless days of third grade because of epilepsy.
Issues truancy officers and the school agreed to accommodate.
"We brought the principal in; we brought the guidance counselor in, the teacher in. Everyone wanted to come in because they love this kid. But everybody knows the problem is the dad," Louder said.
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