Why You Should Be Worried: Diane Tran

Would you put this girl in jail?

Diane Tran is 17 years old. She lives in Texas, holds two jobs to make ends meet and support her siblings. She is also an honors student.

She was sentenced to jail recently because of truancy and was fined $100. Diane had been missing school and had actually been warned about improving her attendance before. She still missed school in spite of the warning and so the sentence was handed to her.

But here's why you should be worried: Diane Tran is the middle child of parents who divorced suddenly, leaving her and her siblings without a home or financial support. She was working full time at a dry cleaning shop and part time at a wedding venue, whose owner was kind enough to allow Diane to live with them.

Because of her job, Diane was often too exhausted to go to school and would miss a full day of class. In spite of this, she is an honors student at Willis High School who takes dual and advance credit college level courses in subjects such as English literacy, Spanish, college Algebra and U.S. history.

Still, Judge Lanny Moriarty handed down the sentence to "make an example" of the young girl. In his words, "If you let one [truant student] run loose, what are you gonna do with the rest of 'em? Let them go too?"

Dogs I Know: Chi the Beautiful

I miss my little girl. Chi died of kidney failure nearly two weeks ago and life has not been the same for me. She was the loveliest dog I had ever laid eyes on and even as a puppy suckling her mom she was already beautiful.

When she was a few months old she tried to claim me as her human but her sister Kai had other plans. Kai had gotten to me first and she would have none of Chi's attempts of getting close to me. At one time Kai firmly put a paw on Chi's chest to stop her from walking towards me. As Kai was the eldest of the litter, I let her play alpha girl but would sneak behind her back to shower Chi with attention.

The Rainbow Bridge

When Kai died Chi promoted herself and lay claim on my slippers, curling over them at night to sleep. She was my little princess and cherished every sleeping blanket I gave her as if it were the most luxurious thing in the world. I later put her on an elevated bed at the foot of my own bed. Took her only two nights to make the move from that bed to my own. From then on she slept at my feet, although sometimes I would wake up early in the morning to feel her nuzzle my ear, nape and hair playfully. Once satisfied I was okay, she would go back to sleep at my feet. Sometimes, though, she would share my pillow.