Single mother must go to court for letting 6 children miss school too much

(Dan Tri) - A 46-year-old single mother living in Dorset (England) has just been brought to trial for not sending her 6 children to school the required number of days. This woman has 17 children.

In order not to affect the life of the single mother, the Dorset County Court (UK) decided to keep the identity of this woman confidential. Recently, this parent had to go to court because she did not send her 6 children to school the required number of days in the 2023-2024 school year.

This woman’s four elementary school-age children do not attend school 97% of the required time. Her two middle school-age children do not even attend school, despite their mother’s encouragement, rewards, or even severe punishments. The number of days these two teenagers attend school is only about 50% of the required time.

A 46-year-old single mother living in Dorset (UK) has just been brought to trial because her child did not attend school the required number of days (Illustration: Verily Mag).

Because the 6 children were showing signs of lack of discipline in attending school regularly and on time, the authorities took the children’s mother to court. This is the second time in the past 2 years that this female parent has had to go to court for the same reason.

In court, the single mother explained that because she had so many children, it was impossible for her to take proper care of each one of them. She had always been short of time each day to be able to care for her children.

The children are often late for school, as their mother cannot manage to get them all to school on time. Currently, 14 of the 17 children still live with this mother, of which 11 are under 18 years old.

The parent's defense attorney argued in court that the court should not require the woman to perform additional community service as a form of punishment.

Adding any additional tasks to this woman would only cause her more problems in caring for 17 children.

The defense attorney also argued that the court should not impose a fine on the woman, as she was already facing financial difficulties. New Year’s spending only added to the financial pressure on the single mother.

In the UK, parents who allow their children to take more time off from school than is allowed to do so can be fined up to £160 (over 5 million VND). If taken to court, parents face fines of up to £2,500 (nearly 80 million VND).

In this particular case, the Dorset County Court decided to impose a "symbolic" fine of £80 (more than 2.5 million VND). The court affirmed that it sympathized with the plight of a single mother with many children, so it gave a light punishment, hoping that she would find a way to overcome the problem.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/me-don-than-phai-ra-toa-vi-de-6-nguoi-con-nghi-hoc-nhieu-20241231102525047.htm