Judge convicts mother for failing to get kids to school
Medical certificates used to claim children often sick, except on days of fun activities
Amother has been convicted for keeping her children out of class after using medical certificates to claim they were constant victims of poor health — except for the days when there were fun activities at school.
In a rare prosecution, the school forced the mother into a courtroom.
It was the only case of its sort last year, and one of only 43 prosecutions in the past eight years. About 800,000 children currently attend primary school.
The mother had denied the charges, saying her children, aged under 10, were actually sick.
Judge Gerry Rea convicted her but ordered no punishment, instead offering a warning that if she would not fulfil responsibilities as a parent then “forces beyond me will undoubtedly take charge and that may not be a happy outcome”.
“It is a sad day indeed when a school has to get to this stage to try and enforce your responsibilities for your own two children.”
The mother, whose name was suppressed to protect her children, was brought to court as a “last resort” by a Hawke’s Bay school which had struggled for years to get her kids into the classroom.
The court ruling shows one of the children turned up for school only 50 per cent of the time in the first term of 2017 while the other was present 75 per cent of the time. The national average for their age group was 92-93 per cent.
They had similar poor attendance in the two years before.
The actual non-attendance figure would have been even higher, according to court papers, but for the string of medical certificates produced to justify absences.
Rea said huge effort had gone into trying to get the mother to take her children to school more often. It involved health authorities, Oranga Tamariki and family assistance specialists but nothing worked.
After two years, the school took her to court “as the only way of bringing home . . . she had fallen woefully short of her obligations as a parent and that was impacting adversely” on the children.
Rea said he was concerned about the medical certificates presented to the school when the children were absent.
“There are various examples of them, but they really only said that the child was unable to attend school
because of illness without providing any reason at all as to why that was the case . . .”
Rea said the school contacted the medical provider and raised concerns.
The medical certificates then “changed format” and instead said the child had seen the doctor and was “unable to attend school yesterday” but would be present that day.
“With respect, that is not an adequate medical certificate dealing with the absence of the child the day before based on what the mother has said.”
Then medical certificates changed again, saying only that the child had seen a doctor and “blandly asserting that the child was unable to attend school over a four-day period because of illness as reported by mum”.
Rea said the school would have found it “extraordinarily frustrating” but the “headmaster felt obliged to accept it as a valid medical certificate”.
The principal then would note “a child being absent on one day, competing in the swimming sports the next, and then being absent the third day”.
Rea said it was a feature that on “special days” at school both children attended.
Meanwhile, the mother would claim the illness was intermittent.
Rea told the mother “you will know your children better than anyone” but said she needed to give them the same opportunities at school others had.
He said “the world is becoming more and more competitive and every piece of education that they can get will assist them into the future”.
NZ Principals’ Federation president Whetu Cormick said there was little schools could do to challenge medical certificates: “If a parent produces a medical certificate from a doctor, the school is not in a position to question it.”
Royal NZ College of General Practitioners president Dr Tim Malloy said examinations of children were particularly difficult because they generally saw the parent involved as a driving figure.
“The doctor-patient relationship depends entirely on trust. We are asked to make decisions on information provided by patients.”
Ministry of Education deputy secretary Katrina Casey said there was a maximum $3000 fine. The main responsibility was with parents but schools had the power to prosecute as a “last resort”.