An East Donegal father has avoided prison despite failing to address his daughter’s ongoing absence from school.
The man was a handed a 14-day prison sentence, which was suspended by Judge Paul Kelly, who also imposed a fine at Letterkenny District Court.
The parents of the girl, who is a fifth year student at a Raphoe secondary school, were charged under the Education and Welfare Act with failing to ensure she attended school.
Of the last 38 school days, the teenager was absent for 15 full days.
Since the last court sitting, the girl had attended only three full days out of 16, missing six full days. Of the ten days she did attend, she had either arrived late or left early on seven occasions.
A previous sitting of Letterkenny District Court heard the girl missed 164 days from a 167-day school year.
Judge Kelly said the parents were ‘sticking their head in the sand and allowing the child’s future be stolen from her.’
“She has potential, which is the sad thing,” Judge Kelly said.
“She got a good Junior Cert, even with a lot of absences.
“This is in and out of this court, month after month, and they are doing nothing.”
Solicitor Gordon Curley, representing the girl’s father said the whole affair had a ‘devastating effect on the family’.
“The girl was adamant that she wanted to come to Court today to say her piece,” Mr Curley said.
“She was going to make insinuations that she was not going to go back to school if a jail sentence was imposed.
“I would be concerned what jail would do for the family.”
The girl’s father was present at the back of the court, but declined the opportunity to address the court.
Through his solicitor, he said he ‘never heard tell’ of the services available.
Judge Kelly said that imposing a fine had no effect to resolving the matter.
“Any time she feels like not going to school, she gets a note to say she is ill,” Judge Kelly said.
“The first time we heard of this matter was in May 2015 and it has been here a number of times since.
“There are services available and they have spectacularly failed to engage. There were appointments made and he says he doesn’t know about them…I have no other course open to me as I have indicated.
“I was dissuaded from imposing a sentence in July and they had a chance to engage genuinely, yet here we are again.”