*Photograph: Gary Collins
A JUDGE has warned the parents of a Co Clare school-shy boy that they face jail after commenting that their son “has been missing from school for most of his life”.
At Kilrush District Court, Judge Alec Gabbett sounded the warning after being told that the child has missed 81 percent of school days since last November.
In the case, TUSLA, the Child and Family Agency (CFA) is prosecuting the boy’s parents over their failure to abide by their legal requirement to have their son attend his school under the Education Welfare Act 2000.
Judge Gabbett said the 81 percent absence was due to a move by the family and the mother said “we were homeless” at the time.
He said, “This is another case giving me huge concern. This child has had no education effectively for the last three years”.
Solicitor for TUSLA, the Child and Family Agency, Dermot O’Donovan said that this is the 14th time that the case has come before the court.
Judge Gabbett said, “I am not taking this anymore – this has to be dealt with – this is a case where the parents will ultimately go into custody if they don’t behave themselves”.
Judge Gabbett said, “I have to say to you that I read this report before court and it put me into exceptionally bad form. It really, really upsets me to see a child not attending school at this level. We have the finest free educational system in the world and this child does not attend school for reasons have still not been proffered to the court.
He said that the boy’s school attendance “is exceptionally bad”.
Judge Gabbett said that the boy’s school absence for 4th class was 87 percent for third class 46 percent for fifth class was 25 percent and for sixth class was 31 percent and now this year at 81 percent.
Judge Gabbett said, “He has been missing from school for most of his life from what I can see”.
Mr O’Donovan agreed and said, “That is true”.
Mr O’Donovan said that the boy has fallen behind and Judge Gabbett said, “He seems a bright boy who would do well in school and that is the tragedy”.
Judge Gabbett said that “it is impossible to progress through life without an education”.
He asked, “What are we going to do about this case?
Addressing solicitor for the parents, Patrick Moylan, Judge Gabbett said, “Mr Moylan – I can’t emphasise enough how serious this case is”.
Mr O’Donovan said that there is already a conviction in relation to the couple’s daughter for the failure to get her to attend his school under the Education Welfare Act 2000.
Mr O’Donovan said, “There was a large fine imposed – I don’t know if it was paid or not”.
He said, “The difficulty is that punishing the parents really doesn’t resolve the education of the child”.
Mr Moylan said that the boy is now up at 6am every morning to get a bus to his school and his school attendance has been 100 percent over the last two weeks.
Mr O’Donovan suggested adjourning the case to May and it could be entered at any time before then if there is any back-sliding.
Judge Gabbett adjourned the case to March 26th and said, “I want 100 percent attendance”.
