A question regarding "TT"

[ikkibu]

I've some questions.
Has anyone here heard about an organization called "Troubled Teens", or "TT" for short?  I don't know how long they've been around, but up until last night they were unknown to me.  And now I'm having a problem involving them.  
My girlfriend has stopped going to highschool regularly.  Recently she's not going at all, but I can't really blame her.  The teachers there at the Alternative School she attends make her feel that she doesn't belong and isn't wanted.  Furthermore, from what she tells me, they've even told her to go home cause she isn't welcome there.  Her attendance isn't of my concern right now though.  I had a deal with her.  I want her to go back so I gotta go back too.  She says she wont go if I don't, and I can deal with going back to school if it means she gets her education.

Her parents, knowing that I got her to agree to go back (from what I'm told), have recently teamed up with the local highschool principle and TT to take control of her education away from her and now are forcing her to go to school with the threat of jail time if she doesn't.  Not her parents in jail, but her in jail.

She's older than I am by a couple months, and I grandfathered into the old law that said I could drop out at 16. That law was changed to say 18 instead of 16, but, like I said, I grandfathered into the old law, and, being that she's older than myself, she did as well.  But regardless, she's 19 years of age.  The old law and the new law, both, allow her the right to not go if she doesn't want to.
If I'm correct, the laws of the USA say it's the parent's responsibility to get their child(s) to school.  If the child(s) miss too much school the parents can face legal action and jail time.  From what I understand that only applied to children under the dropout age.

So this is what I don't get.
Does this organization have the power to do to her what they're trying, even though she's 19?
Can she go to jail for not going, like they claim?
Why does she go to jail when her parents took control from her?
Wouldn't it be her parent's responsibility if they have control?
Why does she have to go back when the law allowed her to stop going?

Please correct me if I'm wrong on any of this by the way.

[curiosityandthecat]

Okay, I'm not lawyer or paralegal, so please don't take this as anything but assumptions from a layman.

Having said that, unless it's a court order or she signed a contract with TT, I don't think they can do anything to her. At least not send her to jail, anyway. As far as I know, the day a minor turns 18 they can legally stop going to school without any legal repercussions (no diploma and likely a crap job, but still). If I were you, I'd look in the yellow pages for free legal council, if any is available.

The entire situation is strange... can't she go to a different school, or go to night classes and get her GED so she can go to college?

[ikkibu]

That was the plan.  I told her I'd help her get enrolled at the highschool where I live and get her into the alternative school in teh next town over so she doesn't have to go to school where she lives anymore.  We live about 100 miles away from eachother.  I guess I forgot to mention that.  And we were planning on her moving to my town.  I'm going to pick her up later today.  The plan was she stays with me for a week or two, then goes back to her home town to check up on her mom cause she was going into surgery.  If her mom was doing alright she was coming back to live with me for good.
And she's tried to get her GED.  She took the test and was just a point or two shy of passing on the math part.  Math is my strong point, reading an writing are her's.  We have eachother's missing peices I guess.  But she can't take it again for a while.
But as far as I know there are no night school classes around here.  And to be honest I don't think either mine nor my girlfriend's towns are big enough to warrent there being one.  The highschool merges with another highschool every year almost just to keep up its numbers, and still has lockers to spare on its mere 2 halls of lockers.

But she did tell me about her signing something.  They told her it was a school registration.  From the impression she gave me it didn't sound like they gave her time to read it and when she signed it they took it away and refused to let her see it again.  They told her it was because they didn't want her to rip it up, but when she told them to let her see a copy of it they still refused.  But as far as I know they don't have a court order.  And I really don't see what grounds they would have to get one.

I've been told some things that don't make sense about all this.  She told them that because she is over 18 they can't do anything about her not going to school.  Well she has 2 recorded birthdates because of some problems she had when she was born, and they said that judging by her first birthdate, April 16th 1990, they could.  But that doesn't make sense.  That birthdate as well as the other puts her above the age of 18....  What they said I can't make sense of....

[LoneMateria]

Your whole situation seems messed up and I feel were only getting a fraction of the story.  That being said you can check and see if you have any Jr. Colleges in the area.  I know ours offers classes for students to work toward getting their GED.  I honestly don't see why you are asking the help of a bunch of strangers on the internet.  Legal Council is probably the best way to go about it if you are really concerned about jail time.  You can see if there are any limitation laws if she moves to another state or something.  Anyway good luck with your situation I hope things work out for you.

[ikkibu]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure we're only getting part of the story by all the things that don't yet make sense, but I can only offer what I know.
The way they do GEDs here near where I live is you go take a pretest, they put you in classes for the things you didn't do so hot on, an then after those classes you take the final test for a GED.  I don't know how they do it where she lives though.  In those 100 miles there's a whole county in between mine an her's.

[LoneMateria]

Thats one big county.  I understand that you can only offer what you know, but you really need more information before you should act.  I got my HS Diploma so I don't know how a GED works. However i'm pretty confident that if you 2 are in the same state then the system is the same, because all that is state funded.