By THOMAS JENKINS     
Staff Writer
Local judges will have a new tool available to them in the battle against truancy, as Howard County commissioners voted unanimously Monday morning to increase court filing fees to pay for a mediation program targeting non-attendance.

The program, run by Lubbock-based Dispute Resolution Center and funded with grant money, recently popped up on the county's radar during a meeting between local law enforcement officials, according to County Judge Mark Barr.

“The justices of the peace, myself, the school truancy officer, the sheriff and chief of police and Josh (Hamby, county attorney) get together once a month and talk about what's going on in the community as far as law enforcement (is concerned),” said Barr. “The director of the juvenile probation program told us about this and we met with Mike Smith from Lubbock. It sounded like something that will give us another tool to deal with truancy and juvenile problems.

“Lubbock County has a grant, and for us to be part of that grant we have to pass this resolution, which would add $5 on to all suits filed in the offices of the justices of the peace and $15 for all county and district court suits. That gives us access to the grant, which, in turn, funds this mediation center.”

Barr said the program, which looks to intercede in truancy issues and mediate a solution, could save taxpayers plenty of money in the end, even if it just saves one child from dropping out of school and turning to a life of crime.

“It's a very large problem, with truancy,” said Barr. “And the JPs don't have anything they can possibly do to make the situation better. I know the schools are all for it. I think it's a very worthwhile opportunity. It's something we can do to put some bite into truancy. I see a lot of juvenile cases, and Tim (Yeats) sees a lot of juvenile cases, and I see this (program) as a benefit.

“The mediators actually put the families into contact with those that can help them, similar to 2-1-1, where there are all of these agencies. A lot of these parents don't know where to turn. We've talked about this and talked about this. If you have a kid and he's in trouble in junior high, you've already lost him. However, if you can start in the second or third grade and get the problem solved, then we have a chance. If we can save one kid, we can save $25,000, which is what it costs to send them to the Texas Youth Commission.”

D. Gene Valentini, spokesman for Dispute Resolution Center, said the list of counties joining the program is growing, and the positive impact of the center is having on young people is encouraging.

“We've had a grant for the last two years and we've been focusing on juvenile issues, and our priority has become, almost by default, truancy issues,” said Valentini. “The primary problems we began to identify were with truancy and all of its subparts, such as problems at home, issues at school and with law enforcement. So we have seen some real benefits by focusing on the truancy matters.

“We mediate between the kids and their families, as well as the kids and other parts of the community that sometimes pop up. This year alone, we've already touched (the lives of) 200 kids, and it's growing. There are a lot of things that can be done and we feel this is a very effective approach. We're excited about Howard County participating. Hockley County just came in, and we expect some more counties to join in that want to utilize the services of this network as well.”

Valentini said the mediators used in Howard County would most likely be local people.

“We prefer to use local folks. That means we're going to have to do some training, and we have some planned for the end of August,” said Valentini. “My hope is that we can get two or three people from Big Spring or Howard County that can potentially be trained as mediators and not get into a commute situation. I think the program will fail if we're totally reliant on out-of-towners or folks out of Howard County.

“One of the techniques we've initiated in Lubbock and Hockley counties and we've found to be effective is to have someone actually in the JP courts. That seems to be a real turning point, so we've been attending all truancy activities in both counties,” said Valentini. “After the initial information is obtained working with the school or the court, the mediator sits down and works out a resolution that's satisfactory and meets the parameters of the court. So the child and the school district are benefiting. The youngest I'm aware of we've had come into the system were six and seven years old.”

Local attorney and mediator Tim Yeats said he's unsure how the program will have the promised effects on local youth, but welcomed any chance to reach children in danger of dropping out.

What he doesn't welcome, however, is the additional burden the new fees will put on area taxpayers filing court suits.

“I think the proposal is a raising of fees across the board. That's divorces, or anything else filed in district court, county court or the JPs' courts,” said Yeats. “I can envision a situation in district court because Judge Moore (Judge Robert H. Moore III, 118th District Court) refers everything to mediation, and he has the power to select a mediator. And I can certainly see a situation where someone says, “Why should I pay so-and-so for mediation when free mediation is part of my filing fee?”

“I think what you end up with if you plan to use it simply for truancy and juvenile (matters), which sounds great, is taxing a whole group of people who are filing district court cases, which are civil cases, such as divorces. I don't know how much that comes up to, but according to the resolution all of that money from the $5 and $15 fees goes to Lubbock County in return for them providing these mediation services. It's not a huge part of my business, and I'm not going to miss it if I don't get any more mediations, but it seems a little unfair when you're taxing a whole group of people out there, especially in district court, that won't get any benefits out of these services.”

Yeats' objection prompted Commisioner Jimmie Long to ask if the bill could be passed along to those usually at the heart of the problem, the parents.

“Why can't the fee be assessed to the families for the mediation if it's ordered by the JPs and our district officers?” asked Long. “Isn't that the way it is now?”

Justice of the Peace Kathryn Wiseman said most families experiencing truancy problems are already in economic straits.

“Most of the families involved are very low-income families,” said Wiseman. “Many of them are single mothers with five to six children. They already cannot afford it. I can't tell you how many of the cases dealing with parents contributing to the non-attendance I had to issue a warrant on and they served jail time simply because they don't have the money to pay it. This is a portion of the problem, that they are low-income families that don't have the money to begin with.

“I see no problem with assessing that fee to all courts, because, eventually, that kid is going to end up in district court or county court if we don't take care of the problem now,” she said firmly.

Contact Staff Writer Thomas Jenkins at 263-7331 ext. 232 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it