Court-Ordered Community Service

Some of you may have known that we had a court-ordered kid here for community service a few weeks ago.  Nice kid, he was an accomplice to something that went on, and he was here for... 4 (?) days.  We got a lot done while he was here.  He washed things, cleaned cages, made toys, and so on.  Very nice kid.

So then we got another one.  Someone called and said they had until the end of the month to get 25 hours done.  This was... on the 21st.  I told them, based on my schedule, they'd need to start on Monday (25th) and work most days from then until Saturday (as Sunday begins October).  Told the kid, he would have to work 4-5 hours a day, to get the 25 hours in.  He said ok, and so we agreed that he would show up on Monday, after school, so, 3:30. 

He shows up, works pretty well actually, does things pretty fast, nice kid.   I asked him what time his parents were coming to get him, and he said he didn't know, but that his mom would text him when she was coming to get him.  It seemed like he wasn't there for very long when he told me that his mom was here for him... it was 6 pm, so he'd been here 2.5 hours.  I asked him if he could come back tomorrow (more to reiterate than anything, since he had to be here all days to get enough hours in) and he said yes.  I asked if he wanted me to keep his paperwork (there's papers that I have to fill out, and he would turn in at the end) and give it back at the end, and he said yes.  So we said our see-you-tomorrow's, and he left.

Fast forward to Tuesday.  3:30 came and went.  I thought maybe he was running late, but the entire night passed and he never did show up.

Now, in all fairness, it may not have anything to do with him, specifically.  It could be that he couldn't get a ride, or the car broke down, or mom's sick, or whatever... but I never did hear from him again.  If nothing else, I partially expected to hear from him again because he did work the 2.5 hours, and I would have signed off that he did work those hours... but so far I haven't heard anything from the kid.

In case you're wondering why I didn't call him -- when he initially called, he said he was calling from a parent's office phone, and that he'd give me another contact number for him when I saw him.  Well... I never did get that number, and I didn't save the work number (and I get such a ridiculous number of calls per day, that there's no way to go back in time and find that number).  

Well... I imagine he won't be getting his hours in, during the required time.

Though, in case you didn't know, if your teen needs community service hours for their court-ordered community service, they can do them at the rescue.  We've also had adults that need community service hours do them here, so if you don't want to go volunteer at a nursing home or whatever, this is an option for you!