APPLETON, Wis. — Inside an independent review of the Appleton Area School Dsitrict's truancy court are allegations of bullying, yelling, making fun of students, and recommendations to remove a judge.
"Ultimately, it's impacting the lives of these youth catastrophically," area youth counselor Emmanuel Christopher said.
Christopher and dozens of others rallied against the court on Thursday and then took those concerns into a school board meeting.
Attorney Duane McCrary did a six-week independent review of the truancy court and talked about what he found. His review recommended Judge Mark McGinnis be removed. The review says that students had traumatic experiences based on McGinnis's treatment. In one case, a student said she was put in handcuffs and taken out of the courtroom.
"There needs to be corrective approaches as opposed to punitive approach," Christopher said.
We called Judge McGinnis's office trying to reach him for comment. We haven't heard back.
At Thursday's meeting, the board president said there's a direct correlation between student attendance and achievement. They are going to look at changes.
"This district has a process that will look at it very seriously," school board member Barry O'Conner said.
O'Connor said that overall the court is working in that truancy rates are low.
"I don't think the verbal behavior issues and humiliation and so on is a necessary part of it," O'Conner said. "Absolutely unnecessary."
He and others will address the issue at a meeting January 10.
