AN ELKVIEW Middle School mother is the first parent in Kanawha County to be jailed because of her child’s absences.
Rhonda Smith, whose daughter has missed 47 days of school, was sentenced to five days at South Central Regional Jail. She could have received up to 20 days. Kanawha prosecutors, who are cracking down on truancy issues in conjunction with initiatives by magistrate court, circuit court and the state Supreme Court, charged Smith last fall. She was initially sentenced to community service at school, along with 18 other parents of Kanawha County schoolchildren who had excessive and unexcused absences, and ordered to send her child to school. She failed to follow through and was charged again. Her seventh-grade daughter missed 31 days last fall, resulting in the first charge. The girl has logged another 16 absences since then.   She entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors last week and pleaded guilty Monday to second-offense truancy before Kanawha Circuit Court Judge Louis “Duke” Bloom.           –DM