Police Charge St. Charles Mother After Son Misses Lots Of School

ST. CHARLES, MO — Prosecutors have charged a St. Charles mother with emotional neglect after her 9-year-old son missed more than half his school days between August and December last year.

Jessica Pence-Nicholson told Fox 2 St. Louis that all of her three sons have been absent from school a lot because of illness, deaths in the family, and anxiety related to her ex-husband. She said the 9-year-old is often up all night with bad dreams.

"If I have to stay up all night just because he has a bad dream, I'm not going to send him to school the next day you know because he gets sick to his stomach," she said. "I wish that it was not like this for our lives, I wish things were better."

The St. Charles School District said in a statement that regular attendance is "essential to a child's success" and that it reported the family to the Missouri Department of Social Services earlier this year, adding that school officials first tried to work with the family to address hardships that were preventing attendance.

Social Services placed the family on probation, but the case was dropped in May for reasons that aren't clear. After that the school's resource officer brought criminal charges to prosecutors.

Such cases are rarely prosecuted and critics — like the American Civil Liberties Union — say they disproportionately target poor families, families of color, and families with children who have medical or mental health issues.

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