Govermental Excess

[Cole Parker]

Is Maggie still in charge over there?:

British parents face PRISON for taking kids out of school for one-week family vacation

January 15, 2014 12:17 PM

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You’ve come a long way since the Magna Carta, Great Britain!

In 1215, the Magna Carta — the Great Charter of the Liberties of England — limited government power and guaranteed a host of rights. Now, in 2014, a local government in the West Midlands is preparing to send parents Stewart and Natasha Sutherland to jail because the couple took their three kids on a weeklong vacation near the beginning of the school year.

The situation has escalated because the Sutherlands have refused to pay fines mandated by a controversial set of British laws for parents who fail to ensure that kids go to school, reports the Daily Mail.

Under the new laws, parents must send their kids to school regularly. If they don’t, they face fines and the eventual possibility of jail time.

The vacation occurred in mid-September. It was the family’s first vacation in five years.

The Sutherlands took their brood (Rhiannan, 15; Sian, 13; and Keane, 6) to the Greek island of Rhodes.

As a consequence, school officials fined the couple £360 (just under $600). When the parents refused to pay after 21 days, the fine doubled. Since then, the penalties have increased to £2,000 (almost $3,300).

The Sutherlands now also face the prospect of a three-month prison sentence.

They booked their vacation in Oct. 2012. The draconian guidelines became effective on Sept. 1, 2013.

Stewart Sutherland, who works for the Ministry of Defense Guard Service, said his job and his wife’s job have made it very difficult for the family to find a block of vacation time.

“We haven’t been able to get leave in the school holidays at the same time for five years, and we desperately needed a family break,” he told the Mail.

“I know how important education is, but there’s a bigger picture. Family time is important, too, and the children’s behavior and schooling has improved massively since our holiday together,” he added.

Kay Burford, a school official, begged to differ.

“Our policy supports new legislation which makes it clear that head teachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances,” she told the Mail.

“There is no automatic right to any leave or holiday in term time,” she added sternly.

Sutherland told the British tabloid that the government is punishing his family for telling the truth.

“I’ve since become aware that other parents just lie and tell the school their kids are ill, but I was upfront from the outset and raise my children to be honest,” he said.

Sutherland has also claimed that a school official advised him that he and his wife had deprived their children “of six days education and should feel guilty.”

“We are their parents; it should be up to us,” the father of three insisted. “We believe quality family time is just as important as schooling.”

[Jeff Ellis]

I think I feel inclined to differ on this one...

The guy's job suggests that he is one of the self-important opinionated jobs-worths that guard front doors to keep the tax payer away from what they have paid for.

That he thinks his holiday more important than his children's education and refused to pay the fime designed to make parents think twice before being tossers is simply par for the course.

It sounds to me like he got what he was asking for... an opportunity to posture and be news for 15 minutes.

PS. The Daily Mail is to UK journalism what the Tea Party is to US politics.

[Cole Parker]

I don't think the government should crack down on a family that hasn't taken a vacation in five years and does so at the beginning of the school year because that's the only time they can get away. Now if the kids are frequent truants, if the kids are all failing in their classes, yeah, then there might be a point. But if the family booked the vacation before the law was enacted, and if the schools haven't had a problem with the kids in the past, then why take such a rigid approach here? Seems a waste of time and resources to me.

C

[Nick Deverill]

It is quite a problem to schools and I know in some areas, kids were being taken all over the place in term time. Can make a teacher's life very difficult.

From the article, you'd think this was a one off for the family, but was the quote of five years actually true?

[DesDownunder]

The parents happily planned their holiday, ignoring the school's rules for the children's attendance.

As such the consequences were a fine of $600.

The parents should have just paid fine.

It must also be asked how the fine could possibly make up for the student's missing those days from school.

I understand that the fine is claimed to act as a deterrent, but the subsequent increases in the fine do seem to reveal that the school is intent on setting an example of opportunistic greed as the lesson of the day.

There has to be a better way to accommodate what must be a not uncommon situation.

[Chris James]

_{I see this as a state of inflexibility by the school system. Of course here in the US of A the Lords of Education (school officials) have no powers to fine anyone, what a stupid system you folks have invented . Who are these people? Courts levy fines and they are certainly not that. So the system sucks to begin with and then...}

_{The parents took their children on holiday. Did they go to an amusement park or for a ski in the Alps? No, they went to the Island of Rhodes immersed in Greek history. Heaven forbid the children might have learned something, did anyone even ask? Schools and parents pay a small fortune for extended field trips to such places as an educational experience. How brilliant these parents.}

_{English authority often has the reputation of walking around with a stick up their ass and this does nothing to prove otherwise. Of course Jeff is right, the news from this source is less than informational and more of the sensational. But here in the US of A, school boards are elected and such a move would probably find the lot out on their ear for such a radical treatment of parents.}

_{Of course in the US of A such a harsh judgment by school authorities would be a call to turn out the militia...let's not go there.}

[Guest Dabeagle]

I think the spirit of that law was for frequent offenders (could be wrong) and perhaps they are being rigid about it for reasons other than the stated. I agree kids need to not miss school, however, in our area if a child misses more than X days, they fail. This makes far more sense to me.

[Cole Parker]

Yes, this appears to be a situation where talking and reasoning and compromise would avail. Instead we have two sides both more interested in making a point than coming to an accommodation.

You know, thinking along these lines, it seems to me that if they'd us at this forum run the British and American governments, we could do a pretty good job of it and not come to blows, either.

C

[Nick Deverill]

I think the spirit of that law was for frequent offenders (could be wrong) and perhaps they are being rigid about it for reasons other than the stated.

That I believe to be true. It's a sad fact of a lot of legislation that the people caught out are mostly the honest ones, and the bad people work around it.

[Jeff Ellis]

Here is a more balanced account of what went on...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-25733272

It would seem that the practise is to book cheap holidays that are cheap because they are during term time, and then discount against the cheap holiday the pretty nominal fine. The parents appear to have attempted to use the "booked it before the law changed" as a loophole to avoid paying the fine. The court that heard the case obviously didn't have any sympathy.

I see nothing in any of the articles to suggest that they went to Rhodes for educational reasons... what I do see is that this family that couldn't get a holiday together could find it possible to book a year ahead... in a year whose annual holiday entitlement hadn't even started yet, presumably to get the cheapest possible rates... and then got caught out when the rules changed.

According to the BBC article, " He told magistrates he decided to take a family holiday because of problems with his eldest daughter, whose behaviour and school attendance had deteriorated." So, I can quite see why the daughters school principal may have thought that less cheap holiday and stricter parenting would be a good idea.

The only reason they are being threatened with Jail is because nothing else has made them see reason.

Our government has been trying to raise schoolstandards in the face of this kind of bad parenting, and one of the big problems has been parents who fail to enforce school rules... such as turning up to be educated. Parents who defy the school to the extent of needing to be threatened in this way... would appear to need to be threatened!

And, I say that as someone who didn't vote for this government and who thinks that Michael Gove, the Education Secretary is a complete idiot.

[Graeme]

On a personal note, we took both of our boys out of school a few years ago to go on a holiday. We had the support of the school, as they saw the experiences of an overseas trip being educational in its own right. Both of our boys were primary school kids at the time, and we were going for a four week holiday in the USA, visiting lots of educational places like Disney World in Florida. We did take some time out for the non-educational places, like the Johnson Space Centre, Kennedy Space Centre, and a couple of the Smithsonian museums in DC, but they were a minor part of the trip....

[Jeff Ellis]

Graeme... that is exactly right... your school accepted that the opportunity was one that they could support and you went with their permission and blessing. There is all the difference in the world between what you did, and how you did it, and the parents in the story who simply went and did it, booking their violation of school rules a year in advance.

The real problem is that the kids see their parents treat the school and its rules with complete contempt and think that they are entitled to do the same.

[The Pecman]

On a personal note, we took both of our boys out of school a few years ago to go on a holiday. We had the support of the school, as they saw the experiences of an overseas trip being educational in its own right. Both of our boys were primary school kids at the time, and we were going for a four week holiday in the USA, visiting lots of educational places like Disney World in Florida. We did take some time out for the non-educational places, like the Johnson Space Centre, Kennedy Space Centre, and a couple of the Smithsonian museums in DC, but they were a minor part of the trip....

On the very rare occasions I had to miss school as a kid, my parents would contact my teachers and work out a way for me to do all my homework while on vacation (to stay current with the class), and I'd get assigned a special term paper or something that would tie into the courses. Not that big a deal. No fines paid, no complicated rules... just common sense.