Hiding in plain sight: Some students say cutting class is easy, especially if they don't try to leave campus.

Publication: Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, TX)

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COPYRIGHT 2006 Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Byline: Terry Webster and Eva-Marie Ayala

Jun. 18--Months before Coleen WhiteLightning dropped out of Richland High School, she roamed the hallways, ducked into the in-school suspension room when she wasn't supposed to be there, and sat through as many as three lunch periods a day. "I'd just walk around talking to people," she said. High school dropouts across Tarrant County say it's not unusual to skip classes and remain on campus. They talk of spending days in limbo, meandering through the hallways, chatting with friends, sitting through multiple lunches or even joining large gym classes after attendance has been taken. Some said they hid inside empty auditoriums and went to weight rooms to work out rather than to class. Some students who skip classes end up in General Educational Development, or GED, courses. But new state rules give schools a disincentive for putting teenagers in those programs. Starting with the Class of 2006, those students are being counted as dropouts. Keeping up with students who cut classes is a constant battle, said Jimmy Jones, who's retiring as principal of Arlington's Lamar High School after spending 24 years as an administrator. Students usually skip in small groups of three or four students at a time, Jones said. They take turns being lookouts, he said. "Some teachers will catch them and...

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