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?"

Although the sentence was a "mere" 24 hours spent in jail, it will be on the young girl's record. Imagine her dismay and disappointment that in spite of her hard work she would still be punished. How sad that a wonderful, responsible young woman who is not even old enough to vote should be put in jail by an adult who should have known better. The fine was $100 but for someone who has to work two jobs to give her siblings the semblance of a better life, that is a lot of money.

Is the judge so jaded now that he cannot look past the superficial issues and see, really see what really goes on? Diane Tran's family - or at least she and her siblings - needs help and support and the court, that very component of the government that was supposed to protect them let them down at a time when they needed as much support as they could get.

Also, the adults who were supposed to be there for her and her siblings - her parents, the teachers at her school - failed to protect her. Although people took Diane and her sister in and gave them a roof over their heads, they needed more. How shameful that here is this wonderful human being who keeps fighting to stay alive and get an education should be spend a night in jail for being too tired physically and emotionally to go to class.

Thankfully, there is a silver lining to Diane's dark cloud: after her story broke, support from angry and upset individuals came pouring in and she is finally getting the support she needed. Perhaps someone who is as kind and generous as she is who has the financial capacity would step in to help this kid who so desperately needs someone.

Judge Lanny Moriarty was right about one thing - he did make an example of Diane Tran but in a way that makes her the winner.

A petition was started for Diane on Change.org. If you want to sign to show support, you can use this link.