Essence Patton graduated 2 years ago and she still has not received her diploma. She owes $107 to Poly but does not plan on paying it back believing “fines are not a reasonable explanation for holding a students diploma,” and that if they wanted the money they could just “get it from the district.”
When you turn in a book late or you lose it, you get fined, forget or lose your i.d., you get fined. Here is what happens to our fine money. Fines come from the library, the book room, or the school bank, and no one likes to pay them.
The book room collects between $5,000-10,000 in fines a year, money that goes back into the district, in a general fund which is used to pay for whatever they need, such as new textbooks.
The library takes an inventory every year to check for lost books, and the fines are split into lost books and late books. Those paid fines go into buying a new copy of the books lost. However the student doesn’t have to pay the fine, they could instead bring in a new copy and the fine will be cleared.
The banker handles temporary I.D.’s and new I.D.’s once someone has gotten a certain number of temporaries or lost theirs. This year however the school has stopped charging for temporary I.D.’s. Which only leaves fines for the new I.D.’s, which come when a student has had 3 temporaries.
So far this year, the school has made roughly $2,000 in those fines. The money for those fines goes into the cost of ordering and printing new I.D.’s, and the general ASB fund to help important school programs. If the fines are not paid then the student cannot attend certain activities or get clearance for extracurriculars on campus.
California has just passed a law where public schools cannot withhold high school diplomas for unpaid fees. So maybe Essence Patton can finally receive her diploma.
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