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There are always going to be some parents who are overwhelmed, neglectful, or just disengaged. Blaming them accomplishes nothing. We can't just write those kids off. The public school system needs to step in and at least give them a chance to succeed.

I certainly agree that there was a serious amount of parental and school figure failure here, but a school and a parent can only motivate and encourage. A student has to take responsibility for themselves and do the work, too.

This kid was in the top half of his class. I don’t think the personal responsibility bit holds up when literally half a school’s population has this issue. At that point it’s systemic, not individual.

Whoever is to blame, they are failing many of them. Not just this one. He was in top half of the school rankings. Imagine what the bottom half did. They probably never showed up.