I've heard parents in various school districts saying they were threatened with jail time for their children's attendance.

Is this just teachers trying to save their jobs?
Is this a way to determine who has more authority parents or the school districts?

UPDATE: Nearly 4 dozen arrested in LA teacher protest
2:10 PM Fri, May 15, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Posted by: PE News
click link for full story
http://blogs.pe.com/news/digest/2009/05/update-nearly-4-dozen-arrested.html

Nearly four dozen people have been arrested in Los Angeles for blocking traffic in a protest of layoffs of teachers and other employees of the nation's second-largest school district.

A Los Angeles police spokesman says 46 protesters have been arrested in Friday's demonstration outside school district headquarters. Teacher's union president A.J. Duffy was among those arrested.

The board of the Los Angeles Unified School District voted last month to lay off as many as 2,400 teachers and 2,000 other personnel to deal with a $596 million budget shortfall for the upcoming school year.

The teachers' union had called for a one-day strike on Friday, but a judge issued a restraining order.

—The Associated Press