Is this grounds to get denied into nursing school???

Nurses General Nursing

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I just found out that I have a Class A Midemeanor for a Failure to Appear to court. Class A means that it is traffic court related. I had a court date during finals week (out of all times) and I did not go for obvious reasons for a ticket I had gotten for not making a complete stop earlier in the semester.

I know people have gotten denied into nursing school because of a DUI, while this may not be as serious, it's still a misdemeanor!!

I have talken with the director of the nursing program I am supposed to start in August and she says she doesn't have grounds to say whether or not I will get denied because really it's up to the facility at which I will be doing my clinicals.

The director mentioned that it's not that serious, however, she said some facilities have gotten strict to where they don't except any charges.

Can anyone shed light on my situation?

We are not allowed to give legal advice on this site. You will need to deal with the court system and your school to find out what will be any consequences of this. Good luck.

in my experience most tickets of this nature have an option to just pay the fine instead of appearing. this prevents the misdemeanor. if you dont show it usually doubles and you still have to pay to get rid of the misdemeanor. any decent attourney can get rid of it but your gonna pay way more since you ignored it up front.

yep... they can. Each hospital is going to have their own guidelines. I think that instead of failing to appear a better choice would have been to reschedule. i hope that you can get get it worked out.

SOme guy that finished nursing school the semester after I did managed to get into clincal, graduate and get approved for the NCLEX with THREE DWI's.

SOme guy that finished nursing school the semester after I did managed to get into clincal, graduate and get approved for the NCLEX with THREE DWI's.

That's crazy.

I just found out that I have a Class A Midemeanor for a Failure to Appear to court. Class A means that it is traffic court related. I had a court date during finals week (out of all times) and I did not go for obvious reasons for a ticket I had gotten for not making a complete stop earlier in the semester.

I know people have gotten denied into nursing school because of a DUI, while this may not be as serious, it's still a misdemeanor!!

I have talken with the director of the nursing program I am supposed to start in August and she says she doesn't have grounds to say whether or not I will get denied because really it's up to the facility at which I will be doing my clinicals.

The director mentioned that it's not that serious, however, she said some facilities have gotten strict to where they don't except any charges.

Can anyone shed light on my situation?

I think your director is correct, it really depends on where you are at , in that some states are more strict than others so you may receive mixed opinions here. But if I am correct it looks like you are in CA, they have more important things to worry about. But what I would do it contact, the Sheriff Office where you got the ticket and make sure you set another date to appear before the judge and make payment on the ticket. Most places will put a misdermenor charge on your record just to make sure you do not skip out of paying a ticket, and in this recession I am pretty sure there is allot of that. Let the judge know that you was not aware of the court date and you since you found out about it you have rescheduled, you want to pay the ticket and asked if you could have the charges reversed.

Specializes in LTC.

In my state you would just have to reschedule and pay a fine of $60 to re-open the case. If you failed to appear a second time they would suspend your license until you did settle the court case. Then you'd have to send proof of that, along with another fine, to the DMV to get your license reinstated.

I know this from experience. Some neighborhood kid was stealing other people's mail and I never got my court dates, but I was pretty much told, "too bad, that's not our problem." I despise the DMV...

Specializes in ER, ICU, Education.

The situation is the same here as what the director mentioned. We have to get approval from all clinical sites; some are more restrictive than others. After all, it wouldn't be fair to you to be admitted, only to find you aren't allowed to attend clinical. We have admitted people in the past with misdemeanors, after receiving approval from the clinical sites. Perhaps this will be the case in your instance.

You may have to grovel and confess you have problems with authority --- including stop signs. Tell them you know you need help. Pleeeeze help me. Stuff like that. You should be golden.

not a legal expert, but you might want to consider talking to a lawyer. in my state sometimes things that are minor can get expunged (is that the way you spell it) if a lawyer files something.

my hubby's misdemeaner assault (barfight) from when he was actively drinking was removed after three years because he went to anger management/counseling with a private shrink, and a lawyer filed paperwork.

i know it's a bit different, but i think checking with a lawyer would just at least let you know what you need to do or if there is anything you can do.

Specializes in MPCU.

Lawyer.....

Just as a wise patient seeks the advise of a licensed professional for health concerns, a wise defendant seeks the advise of a lawyer. It costs, but less than self treatment in the long run.

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