The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 2.20 “I’M SORRY!” Monster Mom Ruby Franke Sentenced to 4-30 Years, Billie Eilish “Scandal”, MKBHD, & More

Episode Date: February 20, 2024

It sounds weird, but let me explain… Start your free trial today: http://www.Squarespace.com/Phil  & enter offer code “Phil” to get 10% off your first purchase!  Buy the new https://BeautifulBastard.com Drop! 6 new items just went live and even more to grab  –✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Ruby Franke Sentenced 3:12 - Sora by OpenAI Is A Game Changer in the Best & Worst Ways  5:42 - Man Sues Air Canada over False Info Given to Him by AI ChatBot 8:32 - Alabama Court Rules Frozen Embryos are Children 12:24 - Sponsored by Squarespace 13:07 - Billie Eilish Seemingly Starts Feud with TikTokers at PCA’s 16:11 - Elon Musk Says Neuralink Implant Patient Can Move Computer Mouse With Mind 17:26 - Navalny’s Widow Speaks Out 19:52 - Parents Are Being Punishing for Growing Student Absenteeism 25:43 - Your Thoughts on Thursday’s Show  ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Star Pralle, Chris Tolve  Associate Producer on Student Absenteeism: Lili Stenn ———————————— #DeFranco #RubyFranke #BillieEilish ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup, you beautiful bastards! You're watching the Philip DeFranco Show, and we got a lot of news to talk about today. We've got mommy vlogger Ruby Frankie being sentenced to years and years in prison today. Alabama Supreme Court just ruled IVF embryos are actual children. The AI Pandora box that was just unveiled is exciting and horrifying. And why people are fighting over this ridiculous Billie Eilish controversy. And then there's even more we gotta talk about today, but a quick announcement first. Very excited to announce a new drop just went live over at beautifulbastard.com, which includes the Your Mom's Favorite Cowboy Premium Tee and Hoodie. For all your show-offs, it can last more than eight seconds. As well as the

Take Me First, I Ain't Made for This Planet Premium Crew and Tea. And then finally, I heard all the whining, so fine, we've unvaulted the Don't Be Stupid Stupid Crew and Premium Tee. They're all available as I'm recording this in a few limited colorways over at beautifulbastard.com. So grab what you want while you can. It's first come, first served. With that said, I got a full show of news for you today. So buckle up, hit that like button

to let YouTube know you like these daily dives into the news and let's just jump into it. Starting with famed mommy vlogger, Ruby Frankie just got sentenced. When we last left things back in December, she pleaded guilty to child abuse. We just got the news that she will serve four consecutive sentences last left things, back in December, she pleaded guilty to child abuse. We just got the news that she will serve four consecutive sentences

of one to 15 years in prison, which is a huge range. So they are reportedly the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole will decide exactly how long each term is. So this also, as you had NBC News reporting that the maximum aggregate sentence for consecutive terms is 30 years. So that's where the sentencing range would cap out.

And for those of you that are coming into this later, if you just need a refresher, the details of the situation were horrific. Where Ruby was best known for the family channel, Eight Passengers, where they're eventually getting charged with felony child abuse last year alongside Jodi Hildebrandt,

a woman who had been identified as a therapist and Ruby's business partner. And this after two of Ruby's kids were found with duct tape on them, severely malnourished, and they had deep lacerations from being tied up. And the things we've learned since then painted an even more disturbing picture.

And again, all of that was after viewers had long suspected that Ruby was abusive, at least in some capacity, just based on the content she was putting out. Also regarding Jodi Hildebrandt, she was sentenced to the same terms as Ruby today, and so for now, we're going to have to wait to see what the Pardons Parole Board does regarding the specifics. Which on that note, during her sentencing, we did hear from Ruby. And similar to the comments that she made while she was pleading guilty, she suggested that a lot of it came down to Jodi's influence. For the past four years, I've chosen to follow counsel and guidance that has led me into a dark delusion. I was led to believe that this world was an evil place

filled with cops who control, hospitals that injure, government agencies that brainwash, church leaders who lie and lust, husbands who refuse to protect, and children who need abused. Jody Hill DeBrandt was never my business partner, nor was I ever employed by her. Jody was employed as my son's counselor in 2019, and in 2020, I paid her to be my mentor. It is important to me to demonstrate my remorse and regret without

blame. I take full accountability for my choices and it is my preference that I'll serve a prison sentence. And then as far as Jodi, she also gave a statement saying she wants the children to heal. And one of the reasons she didn't go to trial is because she didn't want the kids to relive that trauma. But the main thing here is bad people who did bad things will go to prison. It is just a question right now for how long. So we'll stay tuned for that. But especially if you were someone that tracked this story, what are your thoughts now seeing it come to this conclusion?

And then we need to talk about not only how many people are about to lose their jobs over the next few years, but how we are so close to Pandora's box being completely opened and not really knowing what the fuck is real anymore. And that's because over the last few years, and especially the last few months, and even now the last few weeks, we've seen more and more of what AI can do. The most recent example being OpenAI showcasing Sora last week,

which if you don't know is where you just write in plain text, like a movie trailer featuring the adventures of the 30 year old spaceman wearing a red wool knitted motorcycle helmet, blue sky, salt desert cinematic style shot on 35 millimeter film, vivid colors. And it gives you exactly what you've been watching while I was reading that prompt. And that being just one of the numerous examples OpenAI posted. Beautiful snowy Tokyo city, several giant woolly mammoths. Animated scene features a closeup of a short fluffy monster. And the internet reacted in one of two ways, sometimes bold, some going, holy shit, this is amazing. And others going, oh my God, please God, no. Not only because this could potentially

replace countless jobs, but also because so much of this looks amazing. Can you imagine how much worse the disinformation problem will get? Because that is a problem that already exists with the technology where it is now. In addition to people just sharing fake tech stories and Photoshopped images

and people whose voices have been duped by AI, but now convincing video is getting thrown into the mix. And while some have accused OpenAI of just cherry picking the videos that ended up looking the best, and that's totally possible, but every video doesn't need to be a home run for the ones that actually do work to be effective,

to be convincing. Hell, while Sora isn't available to the public yet, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, when he was responding to Mr. Beast, was like, hey, I'll generate something for you. Name it. Mr. Beast responds, a monkey playing chess in a park, and boom, there it is. Also, why does the monkey remind me of Ash Katcher? Though notably, like if you pay attention to that video, that's for some reason a 7x7 chess board. It's not perfect, but leaps and bounds past where I think a lot of people thought we were right now. And again, it bears repeating every time we talk about this sort of news.

This is the worst the AI and the technology will be ever again. And so I have parts of my brain competing with each other right now. Because I'm both excited any time technology lowers the barrier of entry to do really cool, beautiful shit. I think there are going to be a lot of jobs and situations where AI, with people that know how to competently use it, they're going to be able to do next level things. But I'm also horrified because as we've seen with other emerging technologies, bad actors

will jump on this shit fast. And I really don't think we are ready for that. What do we do in a world where we don't know what's real anymore? It already takes a lot of effort because there are so many bad actors out there. And can there actually be any sort of safeguard that keeps things on the rails? And then also what we're talking about AI, we should talk about this Air Canada AI lawsuit, because it hits on a problem with AI that we are currently dealing with. Because this situation starts with Jake Moffat from British Columbia going on Air Canada's website, booking tickets to Ontario for his grandmother's funeral. And while booking the tickets, he was using the website's customer service AI chatbot, and he asked about the airline's bereavement policy, with the chatbot telling him that he would just have to file a

claim within 90 days after booking the tickets, and the airline would give him some of his money back. And so Jake bought the next day ticket for about $600 and a few days later spent another $600 on a return ticket, all while fully expecting to get some of that money back. But when Jake went to get that discount after returning home, Air Canada refused, saying, hey, the chatbot actually misinformed you and you can only actually receive a bereavement discount if the request was submitted before the flight. To which Jake responded, cool story, no. But Jake filed a claim with the Canadian Tribunal, where very notably, the airline then argued that the AI chatbot was a separate legal entity, and saying they should then not be held liable for the information that it provided. Never mind the fact that the chatbot

is on their website to help their customers with questions about their policies. And so the Tribunal didn't buy it, ruling instead in Jake's favor, and one member saying, while a chatbot has an interactive component, it is still just a part of Air Canada's website. It should be obvious to Air Canada that it is responsible for all the information on its website. It makes no difference whether the information comes from a static page or a chatbot. And this is a very big deal because many companies have added AI-powered chatbots to their websites in order to offer faster service to their customers. So it is very likely that this ruling is going to have some serious ripple effects in terms of how courts determine accountability

when these things go wrong. But then also the issue of AI chatbots, it's getting even bigger because it's not just limited to the corporate space. We've actually been seeing major content creators battling a similar problem. With, for example, massive tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee recently sharing screenshots of a chat

with a YouTuber AI chatbot by Agent Gold, which notably gives people the option to chat with a bunch of high-profile YouTubers and content creators. People like Marques, MrBeast, Joe Rogan, and CodyCo, just to name a few. With Marques sharing the screenshots and acts and saying, fun fact, there's a random AI company parading around an AI chatbot to chat with a YouTuber and it is so incredibly bad. Just spews lies. They also never got permission to use my likeness and I suspect several others on the list

were never even asked. Avoid this trash. And actually in his interaction with the chatbot, Marques asked if the AI had received permission from the real Marquez to use his likeness for their site. And the AI actually said yes, which outright is not true, according to Marquez. He even asked the chatbot if it was the real him. And again, the AI said yes, despite obviously that not being the case. And seemingly this has gotten back to Agent Gold because they have since changed their chat with a YouTuber to chat with a YouTuber superfan. With the AI just saying they've watched all of this or that creator's video, so ask them anything. With notably Marquez no longer on the list of options. And so I think as we see the rise of all these AI things, like there's going to be no shortage of sketchy companies and sketchy people that take advantage of it. And then,

you know, jumping back to the situation around Air Canada, I also think that over the next five, ten years, there's going to be no shortage of lawsuits. The company is likely more focused on what AI can do for them rather than how and what happens when it fails them because they're the ones implementing it so they should, in theory, be held responsible. And then frozen IVF embryos are legally considered children.

That is what the Alabama Supreme Court just ruled in a landmark first of its kind decision. And this could have huge sweeping implications, not just for the residents of the state, but for hundreds of thousands of Americans across the country who desperately wanna start a family and rely on these treatments. Because an important thing to know is that this ruling stems from wrongful death lawsuit, with them alleging that a patient broke into a fertility clinic and accidentally

dropped other couples' frozen embryos, destroying them. And as a part of those challenges, the plaintiffs claimed that the clinic had violated Alabama's wrongful death of a minor act. But there, a circuit court judge struck that down, ruling that a frozen embryo isn't considered a minor child under the law because it hadn't been transferred to the uterus, and arguing that the state Supreme Court and the state legislature had a clear pattern of using that qualification specifically to define unborn or minor children. But the state Supreme Court then said, uh, cool story, no, with them ruling that the 1872 wrongful death of a minor act and the state's constitution don't draw that distinction, and actually saying that embryos

have the same protections as all other children under the law. Plus adding that this is especially true in places like Alabama, where voters adopted a constitutional amendment directly aimed at stopping courts from excluding unborn life from legal protection. With that seemingly in reference to a 2018 ballot measure that gave fetuses full personhood rights. So notably, that amendment did not mention frozen embryos.

But regardless, the majority of justices here argue that they had a duty to protect unborn life without exception, with them frequently citing the Alabama Constitution and Christian faith. Right, God is mentioned numerous times in the ruling, especially with Chief Justice Tom Parker, who drew heavily from the Bible in a concurring opinion that reads like a straight-up sermon from a pastor. With all that, him arguing that the people of Alabama have adopted a theologically base view of the sanctity of life, and adding, human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a

holy God who views the destruction of his image as an affront to himself. Even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory. Which again, very big thing here. This is not his personal comments. This is his legal opinion. And that opinion has drawn a lot of criticism from reproductive rights advocates who say that his personal religious beliefs could be influencing his decision.

And saying that is especially concerning because the decision could have a massive impact. The ruling here is exceptionally vague on a number of fronts. And so there are a ton of concerns about what this means in practice. And particularly when it comes to the storage of embryos. When someone undergoes IVF, there are multiple embryos that are made, but not all are used. But the unused ones kept frozen in storage. But now you have the Alabama Supreme Court saying those embryos are in fact people with the same rights and protections as children. And so there are major concerns about what happens to those frozen embryos. So with that, some outlets

explaining this ruling raises questions about what happens to those unused embryos in storage, whether authorities could order them to be implanted in unwilling parents or bring child abuse charges. What happens if a doctor implants embryos that failed to develop? So you have experts saying a number of things saying this ruling could make IVF way more expensive or just force fertility clinics to shut down and doctors to leave the state entirely. Or because they could actually be held liable for homicide charges just for getting rid of extra embryos. And that's even with the approval of the couple who made it. And the same could be true if there's an accident that damages an embryo and potentially even miscarriages. Because there are a ton of different possibilities here. We're talking about a state

that already accounts for almost half of all pregnancy-related criminal cases across the entire country. And again, this could extend beyond Alabama and, in particular, the 11 states that define personhood as beginning at fertilization. Dana Sussman, the Deputy Executive Director of Pregnancy Justice, explained it. This is a natural extension of the march toward fetal personhood. You only need one state to be the first out of the gate, and then the next one will feel less radical. This is a cause of great concern for anyone that cares about people's reproductive rights and abortion care. I mean, the impact here could be very, very far-reaching, because according to the CDC, nearly 100,000 babies are born via IVF every year. And it's been estimated that right now there are between 600,000 to 1 million embryos in storage nationwide.

I get this. There are estimates saying that about 21% of them are abandoned. And so in addition to all those other concerns, if you're in a state affected like this, which right now is Alabama, if you own one of those clinics, what do you do? Like, even though they have a contract saying they can destroy them, do they not? Because that would be considered homicide. And also, if we're considering the embryos, people or children, are there people out there that you could charge with abandoning a child? And I mean, it all just seems like a crazy, stupid mess. That is kind of the state of things. So while we see what the hell this is going to look like moving forward, of course, I'd love to know your thoughts in those comments down below. And then, you know, for any of you who have focused

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it and start your free trial today over at squarespace.com slash phil. And when you realize this is for you, just make sure you enter an offer code phil to get 10% off your first purchase. And then Billie Eilish has gone to war. Apparently. I don't know. The internet's being weird right now. Because in today's celebrity internet drama that seemingly has gone out of hand, it's all centered around Billie Eilish in a six-second clip. Because on Sunday, she attended the People's Choice Awards, and there's this clip where she says. And personally, I hear that there

are some like TikTokers here. I personally do not hear the don't need it thing. But whatever, she addressed that they were there. And so with that, you have a lot of people who have viewed this as kind of a big diss, some disrespect. And even though we don't know exactly who she was pointing to or referring to, there were a ton of social media personalities there. With that including the likes of Alex Earl, Chris Olsen, James Charles, Bryce Hall, and more. And actually some TikTokers have responded, right? Some memeing, showing themselves with running mascara.

Also Bryce Hall seeming to have fun with it. First off, Billie Eilish, I am so sorry that I didn't acknowledge your greatness and bow down to you being another human being. Here, there it is right now. And second, People's Choice invited us personally. Everyone that attended People's Choice and was sitting at those tables, we were invited by People's Choice. So hate on them. But the most sad thing, let me just wipe my tear real quick. The most sad thing

is what I was a, I was a Billie Eilish stan. And now I don't think I can renegade to any of your songs anymore. So obviously with so many popular people, obviously, you know, we're talking about different levels here. So many popular people, there were a lot of different reactions. I mean, hell, you could just go to Bryce's comment section alone. So while there were a good number of people that got a laugh out of that video, you're going, oh, Bryce is trolling. He's joking. There were also a number of people coming for his throat saying, who are you? What do you even do? And that kind of touches on how some people were saying that Billy said the word TikTokers, like it was a slur. Though there you had tons of people on her, I guess

you'd call it alleged side, right? And questioning why TikTokers are there and seemingly everywhere these days. So on that note, you know, we're talking about the People's Choice Awards here. It's not this like insanely prestigious, it's a fan voted thing. When you talk about fans and engagement, I mean, TikTokers have a lot of people paying attention to them. But that's where I will say this riff sparked a whole conversation that I do find interesting. What does it mean to be a celebrity these days? Because very clearly, a number of these TikTokers and a number of TikTokers in general are incredibly famous. But people still view it as kind of a different kind of famous than a singer or an actor. Many not just saying different, but much lesser.

With that, arguing that they don't belong at award shows. And there are others pointing to videos of them going up to the actors and turning the event into kind of a meet and greet to further highlight where the divide is. So people also showing the videos of Billie kind of like waving to people showing there's no bad blood. But ultimately with all of this, I want to pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts on this situation in general? What are your thoughts on like TikTokers being viewed as like a lower tier of celebrity? Though even that I will say, I feel like that is a, that's kind of a dumb question. TikToker is such a broad thing and the levels of different kinds of success you see on TikTok and even YouTube and other avenues of online social media, like they're just so different. Like I've seen TikTokers who get like a million views per TikTok be able to move half that audience

to other platforms. That is powerful. And then others who get like four million plus unable to get people to watch them in a place where they're not being algorithmically pushed. There's different levels to this game, but I also don't feel like this is that serious of a situation and story. Like if a bunch of people that normally aren't at things are all of a sudden there, you might be like, oh, look, look at the new people that are here. And then we've got big Neuralink updates. Because if you don't remember Elon Musk tech startup Neuralink, they implanted their chip in their first human subject late last month with Musk saying the product is called telepathy. And Neuralink's website saying that it works by interpreting neuron activity in the part of the brain that plans movement.

And that giving someone the ability to control a smartphone or a computer with their thoughts. And since receiving FDA approval for human trials late last year, Neuralink has been actively recruiting. With his first clinical trial just focusing on people with quadriplegia due to a spinal cord injury or ALS. When we last heard Musk saying, you know, everything seemed good with the implantation,

the patient was recovering. In a new X Spaces event last night, Musk followed up saying. You know, progress is good. Patient seems to be made for recovery with neural effects that we're aware of. And is able to control the mouse, move the mouse around the screen just by thinking. With Musk then going on to say that they're now working on getting as many button presses as possible. The madding that being able to hold a button while moving the mouse is a key goal

because that's necessary for more basic functions on a computer. Things like moving a window across a screen, stuff like that. And they're working to include more functions, adding more buttons for the user to attempt to use. And again, this is just the very beginning. Musk and Erling have huge goals with their products.

Things like restoring vision, speech, and motor function. That's on top of Musk's goal of, this is just such a wild sentence, symbiosis with artificial intelligence. And then we haven't seen backlash like this in Russia for a while. And it all comes in the wake of news that you might've heard over the weekend. And that is Alexei Navalny is dead. He was a famous opposition leader, activist, lawyer, and blogger who exposed corruption and led anti-government protests for years. And although he had spent a few weeks in jail here and there, authorities kind of refrained from outright imprisoning him for a while, possibly to avoid making him a martyr.

Then things changed in 2020 when he fell into a coma after the government poisoned him, with him surviving and then returning to Russia the next year, knowing full well that he was going to be arrested on cooked up charges, which he actually was before he even left the airport. And from there, he began what would have been an at least 19-year sentence in an Arctic Russian prison colony, prompting some to call him Russia's Nelson Mandela. But unlike the famed South African leader, Navalny never had a joyous moment of liberation from prison. Because on Friday, you had Russian authorities announce that he just suddenly died, with him saying that he supposedly felt unwell and then collapsed after taking a walk. And with that, I think everyone kind of with a functioning prefrontal cortex knows he didn't just die. He was killed. Russia and Putin did this. And so with that, we saw the likes of President Biden saying Navalny's death is proof of Putin's brutality, adding that the White House would

reveal major sanctions against Russia this Friday. And you also have people like the Atlantics and Applebaum writing, even behind bars, Navalny was a real threat to Putin because he was living proof that courage is possible, that truth exists, that Russia could be a different kind of country. Then, as far as Russian state media, they barely mentioned the news at all over the weekend, with mourners laying down bouquets of flowers at improvised memorials for Navalny around the country, including at Moscow's Wall of Grief, which is a monument to victims of Stalin's terror. And according to a human rights group, so far at least 400 people have been detained just since Friday, which actually makes this the biggest crackdown on dissent since the anti-war protests in September of 2022.

And all of this playing out as we're now seeing Navalny's widow coming out with a video accusing Putin of murdering her late husband, and that also vowing to continue his legacy and urging other Russians to join her. And actually with that, since Saturday, she and Navalny's family have reportedly been demanding the return of his body, but all to no avail. With the authorities reportedly telling them that his remains should be kept hidden for two weeks for, quote, chemical analysis. But with that, their allegations are just stalling until any traces of poison leave his body. But really, as shocking as this news is, it's not surprising. With the news of Navalny's death leading to places like the Washington Post to declare that it is now undeniably Putin's Russia, noting how he has withstood sanctions, squashed all dissent, crushed the Wagner Group's insurrection, and all this as the West is

struggling to beat back right-wing populists like Trump who invited Putin to attack NATO, and as the U.S. Congress is deadlocked on aid for Ukraine. All while now now Putin's foremost political opponent close to home is gone for good. So we're left in this situation where we can only hope that even in death, Navalny's ideas and the example that he set live on. And then the number of our kids missing class is hitting epidemic levels all across America's public schools. But instead of actually addressing the systemic issues that caused this to happen, some schools are punishing already vulnerable parents with steep fines and even prosecution, with researchers finding that nearly two-thirds of schools struggled with high absenteeism during the 21-22 school year.

And during that time, over 14.7 million students across the country, nearly one in every three, were considered chronically absent, which is an absolutely massive increase. We're talking roughly 80% higher than before the pandemic. And understand, we're not talking about like a few missed days. Chronic absenteeism? That's usually defined as missing 10% of the school year or 18 days excused or unexcused. And you know, there's a good reason for trying to prevent this from happening. When kids miss school, they fall behind in classes and they risk failing a grade or dropping out.

Also, the relationships with teachers and other students fall through the cracks. They also miss out on essential school services like free meals and mental health care. And students with multiple unexcused absences may also be found to be truant, which is what they call it when a student is absent repeatedly without permission. And that can lead to more serious consequences like young kids ending up in the juvenile justice system or already struggling parents being punished. And I understand all of this is like a very sticky issue. We're not just talking about like kids who are skipping school for fun. Some students are having to take care of younger siblings or they're taking on jobs to make ends meet so they don't get kicked out on the street. Meanwhile, you have others opting to miss class because they're being

bullied, or they're struggling with mental health issues like anxiety and depression. You also have plenty who don't have a way to get to school if they miss the bus, and also some are scared to walk because they live in unsafe areas and they're worried they'll get beaten up or harassed. And then beyond that, there's also major racial implications here. Like many other school-related infractions, research showed that Native American, Black, and Hispanic students were more likely to have their absences labeled as unexcused and were more frequently having truancy cases sent to court. And experts say that the same is also true along class lines, with Ellen Flotman, an attorney with the Missouri State Public Defender's Office, saying,

Many parents take their kids out of school for the start of hunting season or to go to Disney World for a week. But you don't see prosecutors charging those parents, only indigent single mothers who lack the resources to get their kids to school. And also another big thing is that state attendance laws vary massively. For example, a student in Pennsylvania who misses three school days without an excuse is considered a truant. But then in Maryland, it can take up to 15 days just within one semester. And then enforcement is uneven across different schools. You know, while some districts, they follow the rules closely, they intensely monitor kids who miss class, others avoid enforcing all cases, referring only the most serious to prosecutors. And then the punishments themselves also differ. Certain schools suspend

kids for unexcused absences. It's also like, it just makes no fucking sense. You're punishing students for not showing up by forcing them to miss even more school. And then there's also plenty of states that have laws that specifically target the parents of absent students. With Nina Solomon, the deputy division director of corrections and re-entry with the council of state governments justice center telling the Washington Post, we see a director of corrections and re-entry with the Council of State Governments Justice Center, telling the Washington Post, We see a lot of states that have policies where parents can be sanctioned for truancy. They can end up in jail. They can have a significant number of fines or fees associated with a truancy petition.

There are a lot of different approaches across the country. Like, for example, and arguably the most notable case of the past year was this one in Missouri involving a single mother by the name of Tamaray LaRue. Her five-year-old son racked up a bunch of absences. One day, he had to miss school to go to the doctor, and the next, he had a fever. He also missed a chunk of time after his family got COVID, and then there was a number

of more administrative absences, like when his mom had car issues, or when he had to tag along to his brother's doctor's appointment because she couldn't pick him up from school in time. And all in all, this kindergartner collected 14 absences in about five months, with the school saying that nearly half of those

didn't have explanation. And so the district actually brought the case to prosecutors, who then successfully convicted LaRue of violating Missouri's mandatory attendance law and sentenced her to 15 days in jail. With that case then getting a lot of attention and traction, even making its way to the state Supreme Court. Notably, it got paired with the case of another single mother charged with violating the same law for her first grader's absences, and the court there ultimately ruling against both mothers, saying they'd kept their children out of school for multiple days with unexplained absences and violation of state law. And those Missouri cases are just some of the high-profile instances of parents being prosecuted in recent years.

Back in 2014, for example, and this kind of gained national attention, you had a mom of seven in Pennsylvania being sentenced to two days in jail for collecting $2,000 in fines for her children's offenses over several years. But they're then actually dying in jail. While officials said that she died of natural causes, it raised concerns about how much care she actually received. You know, that horrible incident, it escalated fights to decriminalize Pennsylvania laws that cracked down on parents, with us eventually seeing the state changing its policies to improve attendance and prevent guardians

from serving jail time, with other states also making similar changes, like with Texas, which altered its laws on missing school back in 2015, making it so kids couldn't be sent to criminal court, pay fines, or face jail time for this. But advocates in the state say that school districts aren't always effective with their intervention, so kids aren't consistently kept out of court. And all this playing out as some

Republicans in the state legislature are trying to roll back the law and impose harsher penalties on families whose kids miss school. And so with all this, you have many critics saying that these state-level policy changes have helped, but they don't go far enough. And so as a result, an increasing number of local officials are trying to address the problem by targeting the more systemic issues that cause kids to miss class in the first place. Like, for example, in Mobile County, Alabama, a new team of social workers this school year has worked with 2,370 families as part of a program to launch interventions early when a student is starting to miss school. Montgomery County, Maryland also launched a prevention program that several hundred middle school students participated in, with the focus there being to address the root of why each individual missed school and emphasize relationship building over punishment. Meanwhile, the Anderson County School District outside of Knoxville, Tennessee, also shifted to a system that addresses the reasons of absenteeism head on.

With the district's director of student services telling the Post, We find those students, we make contact, we text, we call, we email, we go to the homes for home visits. If there's a barrier for a family or a student that we can easily remove, we want to do that. For example, the district put washers and dryers on a number of schools to try and address the needs of kids who don't wanna go to school with dirty clothes, whose families might be homeless or lack money for the laundromat.

And according to the student services director, that small effort has made a huge difference. And adding, we can't educate them if we can't get them to us. But again, those are just some examples. And of course, this is a problem that persists all over the country, which is why with this dive into this news,

I'd love not only to know your opinions and your feelings on the subject, but also if you'd share your or the experiences of those around you. Because this very much feels like one of those situations where like the intent makes sense. You want kids in school, but the plan or the execution to accomplish that sometimes causes an even bigger problem. And ideally, we want something that's best for everyone. And we're not just following rules because them's the rules. And then finally today, let's talk about yesterday today. I actually mean that in two ways today. Because one, this is the part of the show where I dive into the previous video, see what y'all were saying in the comments. And also two, because I got a lot of texts over on the text line with

people going like, hey, where's the show, the Monday show? Which you might've missed on the Thursday show. But at the very end, I said that there was going to be no Monday show. It was President's Day. It was a holiday. And so out of the goodness of my heart, I gave him the day off. Also, it's in their contracts. But as far as the last show, a lot of the conversations centered around stories involving kids. The child labor roofing situation and then skin care situation. With Jack Despero in the comments noticing. In the U.S., the goalpost has moved from child labor is bad to children shouldn't work in some jobs, to children should be at least

covered by OSHA in their jobs. And I find that dystopian to no end. What the fuck is wrong with the US? It was actually kind of wild from the comments where the number of people like looking through the comments and realizing, oh, I wasn't the only kid that was working construction. With Katia saying, the fact that we've been using child labor for a very long time period, like read the comments. I'm not the only person who worked in construction as a child. I started at 10 years old working on a rodeo ranch for a guy who ran a couple of construction businesses as well. Started working on roofing when I was 13 to 16 and even sharing that they had nearly had their head taken off while they were working on a roof. Yozai Hoigwe is saying, I worked for my father as a roofer. Safety, ha.

The day I quit working, he was mocking me for how slowly I was moving on a 16-12 pitch roof that was 120 feet from the ground at the bottom edge. We never had ropes or harnesses. I bought my own protection gear since he didn't believe in using it. And while saying he wasn't underage, he kept pushing me over and over to go faster. I'm standing there on a single board roof jack one slip away from falling to my death. He pushed past me on the jack and I slid slightly and yelled at him. He told me if I didn't like it, to quit.

So I did. I haven't talked to him since. That was 32 years ago. Construction is hazardous across the board, but every piece of roof work I have seen since then has been lacking in safety. Right? And all of that was in addition to just a number of people who are working construction going like, you guys don't even know how dangerous this job is. And then regarding the news around the concerning situation with skincare and tweens, we had beautiful bastards like Mallrat saying, I work at a popular high-end cosmetic store. And I can say that it's horrifying the number of parents who are buying these $80 creams for their kids who know nothing about what they're buying. It's become our job as retail

employees to try to talk down the parents in order to prevent damage to these kids' skin. That and half the kids coming in can't afford these items and end up stealing instead. Our inventory loss this past year was over $800,000. And Holland Ross sharing, I heard my daughter, 11 years old, telling her friend, also 11, she doesn't need retinol. She then came over to me and asked if I think her friend needed retinol. And I went, no, it's worrying. Like everyone is so scared of aging

and having regular skin. It's terrifying. Kevin R. Fletcher sharing, thank you for talking about the skincare issue. Our daughter is soon to be 11 years old. We're constantly fighting this battle with her. We're in the aesthetics industry. So skincare is a part of our work.

And she sees all these products we sell and use and wants to be like us. No matter how much we tell her it isn't needed at her age, she sees her friends have it, asks other family members, grandpa, grandma, aunts, uncles, etc., to buy it for her, all because of social media and this growing trend of missing out on the next cool thing. And again, just to reiterate here, it is not that tweens should not have some sort of skincare routine. It's just that most dermatologists say that it should be something incredibly basic for the vast majority of kids out there. General cleanser, moisturizer, sunscreen.

But hey, that is where today's show is gonna end. I'll leave you with a friendly reminder to grab what you want over at beautifulbastard.com for this new mini drop. First come, first served, as always. And hey, as far as news, I'll have more for you soon because my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in.

I love your faces, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.