The reason I chose to write about this argument in particular is it is something that happened to my own mother and because I feel that the child in question should get some punishment and not the parent, as it is the child who refuses to stay in school.
I also feel that there are more serious crimes to be dealt with, such as children who are being abused, or paedophiles who seem to be allowed to walk the streets and live near schools.
In my opinion I don’t feel that it’s the parents fault if they have dropped their child off at school and the child then decides to walk off school premises.
During school time it is the teachers’ responsibility to ensure that the child stays in school. After all, it is their job during school hours—that’s what they get paid for.
For instance, I recently read an article about a mother whose 15-year-old son wouldn’t go to school and was constantly bunking off. She was taken to court and received a 1 month conditional discharge, meaning that if the child doesn’t go to school in the next 18 months, the mother goes to prison immediately.
I think this is disgusting and the law should be changed. The child in question actually made a statement saying that this was stupid and she herself should be punished—not her mother—as she has her own mind and makes her own decisions.
Parents have enough to deal with while bringing up their children without some ridiculous law that shouldn’t have come into practice in the first place.
Like I said before, courts and schools should be dealing with more important issues like bullying for a start, and ant-social behaviour that for so long seems to go unnoticed and nothing is done about it.
Maybe instead of unnecessary court orders, schools should work with parents to encourage their child to go to school and find out the reason why they’re skipping school in the first place.
Maybe there is a bullying issue. The authorities should be focusing on these areas instead of picking on innocent parents.
About this article
This article was written by Ashley Francis, a member of Headliners Project Subway at Coram Parents Centre.
