Hughes's widely adored protagonists could range from a misfit in thrift-shop threads (Molly Ringwald in Pretty in Pink) to a slick Jack-the-Lad outwitting the teacher who would thwart his truancy (Matthew Broderick in Ferris Bueller's Day Off).
For American readers, at least, underworld suggests some form of organized crime, but Mr. Thomas includes virtually everything short of school truancy in his definition.
Wyoming Superintendent Thomas Reeder pointed out in Scott's article, that common reasons for truancy in his district include illness, lack of transportation, dysfunctional households, children having to care for younger siblings and lack of parental control in the home.
Durst is a reserved man in his sixties, but he seemed to be in a mood of happy truancy; he was dressed in a green beret and a silky bomber jacket.
There is some recapitulation of this here, including a memorable account of one of his schoolboy truancies in London, when, instead of attending the proceedings of the Sherlock Holmes Society, he spent a few days propping up the bar at the Ritz, dressed in his grandfather's clothes, smoking Balkan Sobranies.
Though courts sided with the parents, Dr. Koop spoke out against the parents' decisions in both cases, saying that the medical and legal establishments had a duty to protect citizens against neglect and discrimination, no matter their age, and that a government's authority to override the rights of parents had been established in truancy law and in child abuse and immunization laws.
Younger individuals faced an elevated risk to be assaulted with a nongun weapon when outdoors on foot as opposed to indoors and when in an area that was high in truancy (see eTable 5; http://links.lww.com/EDE/A975).lww.com/EDE/A975
Jessica Hendra said that she battled self-hatred that expressed itself in bulimia, truancy and anorexia.
The child's heroism lies not in following instructions but in defiance, truancy and rebellion.
The current surge in holiday truancy is threatening parents with fines and worse.
