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Elementary Student Faces Prosecution, Suspension After Missing School To See Solar Eclipse

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - A father who pulled his son out of school for three days to see the total solar eclipse. But now his son's school is threatening his ten-year-old with suspension and prosecution.

"I'd been planning to go to this eclipse ever since I was twelve-years-old and we couldn't go the one in 1979," said Richard Wilson.

This summer, Richard Wilson had another chance to see that special solar eclipse with his son.

"So we took my son out of school the first three days to travel to Oregon," he said.

It's been a few weeks since they got back. But that eclipse experience just took a dark turn.

Wilson received a letter from his son's school saying those three absences to see the eclipse won't be excused.

It warns if his son is absent again, he could be prosecuted and suspended, his driving privileges delayed, and he may be transferred to another school for juvenile delinquents.

"We want to make sure we remind families they are accountable for getting their kids to school," said Kathy Pon.

Rocklin Unified Deputy Superintendent Kathy Pon says the school is in line with state education law, which says parents or children can be criminally prosecuted for chronic truancy.

But attorneys say the school is using that law to intimidate because it comes down to money.

"School districts get money for every day a child is sitting in their seat, and it goes to show the real interest isn't the education of their children," said Attorney Brad Dacus President of the Pacific Justice Institute, "but rather the money they get in their pockets by having children sitting in their seat."

Per pupil funding is how schools get funded. But Wilson is concerned that this case is overreach.

"I know that Rocklin has an excellent program of instruction," said Pon.

Wilson appreciates that Rocklin Unified offers excellent instruction, but says his son's celestial experience eclipsed the classroom.

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