TRUANT OFFICER HELPS KIDS GET ON RIGHT TRACK

Since 1974, J. Weldon McBride has been a man with a mission to get students in school.

McBride, known as "Brownie," has served at the Cape Girardeau Public School's attendance officer. He is being forced to retire from the position because of district budget cuts.

He has worked with all the school principals and secretaries trying to locate wayward students.

McBride has served as truant officer, social worker and father figure. He has awakened students, found them walking on the streets, and has tracked down parents on weekends and late at night.

In the school district's $1.2 million package of budget cuts, the attendance officer's position was eliminated, for a savings of $9,400.

Larry Dew, business manager, said, "It's sad. He puts so much into it. It's more than just a job for him."

Next year, building principals will assume this additional responsibility, Dew said.

The school district's absenteeism policy asked that parents notify school officials if a child is home sick.

"Many of the people I deal with don't have phones or any way to contact the school," McBride said.

"I took this job on a 30-day trial basis," McBride said. "This was a new field for me and I didn't want to obligate myself in case I didn't like it."

But he liked the job and has taken it very seriously.

He recalls one young man he found at home asleep. "I talked to his mother and asked her what was wrong with him. She said nothing was wrong. He just didn't want to go to school."

McBride went in the young man's bedroom, shook him awake and told him it was time to get dressed. McBride would take him to school.

"The mother and I sat on the couch and waited and waited. After about half an hour I asked her if she thought he had skipped out the back door."

A quick check found the young man in the basement doing laundry. He had no clean clothes to wear to school. "I talked to that mother about that. I couldn't believe that young man had to wash his own clothes."

McBride said he encountered many similar situations through the years. "Many of the students don't have much help at home."

The other most common occurrence is that parents believe their children are in school, but the students have "skipped."

"I remember this one particular girl. Her mother thought she was at school. I told her she wasn't. The mother said I should check down the street three doors. Sure enough, I found 10 of them there having a party. I took them all to school.

"I talked to this girl as a father. That summer she was in summer school. The next fall I met her at the junior high. She had gotten back on track and she thanked me."

He checked on another youngster absent from school. McBride was knocking on his door when the child walked down the street. "He said he was sick. It was cold out and he couldn't get into his own home."

McBride said he took the child to several offices looking for his mother or someone to help.

"I was getting ready to take the little fellow to my house to give him lunch when we found his mother."

Technically, his position has been part time. But McBride said he has worked many more hours.

"There was a family I was trying to contact. One night, after a basketball game, I decided to drive by and see if anyone was home."

The lights were on so McBride knocked on the door and talked to the family.

"I don't recall ever failing to make contact with a family one way or another, even if it was on Saturday or Sunday."

McBride admitted that he has some understanding of the youngsters he has dealt with.

"When I was in high school, a friend and I stayed down at the old tobacco curing caves on Ellis. We would go over every morning, stay there and smoke cigarettes all day. I finally got tired of it and went back to school."

The truant officer at that time went after his friend and also brought him back to school.

McBride was a member of the Cape Girardeau city commission from 1952 to 1964 in charge of city parks. He helped build one of the first Little League diamonds in the city.

"I've had at least 38 different jobs and I know I've forgotten a few," he said. His longest tenure has been with the school district.