‘I’m lazy, I can’t get up,’ says slothful son

A teenager whose parents ended up in court after he repeatedly refused to go to school says he’s simply “lazy” — and can’t get out of bed.

Donna Davey and her former partner Shane Dryden were hauled before Community Magistrate Simon Heale in the Dunedin District Court last week after their 15-year-old son continually wagged school.

The boy, who lives with Davey, was enrolled at Clinton Primary School until the end of 2017, then at South Otago High School up to May.

At one point last year he’d racked up 38 days of unjustified absence and seven days of justified absence out of 62 school days — he was off school nearly three-quarters of the time.

With every 20 days of unjustified leave he was removed from the roll.

The Herald spoke to the teen yesterday — fittingly, he was still in bed.

Asked why he didn’t go to school, he replied: “I can’t be bothered. “I’m lazy, I can’t get up.” While his mother said she felt he thought the court case was “amusing”, the teen admitted he did feel bad his behaviour led to a prosecution and both his parents being fined $50.

He said he enjoyed big sleep-ins and mucking around home.

As for what he didn’t like about school, he replied, “I don’t know, probably everything.”

He had been enrolled in a forestry course, which he’d stopped attending, but he said he would like to get back into it “in a week or two”.

In court, the magistrate accepted the parents had made some effort to get their child to school.

“I understand teenagers can be very difficult to coax into compliance,” he said. “But it is your obligation, till he reaches the age of 16, to have him at school.”

Davey said her son was 15 “and he thinks he knows it all”. “I can’t physically drag him out of bed because that would be assault on him, wouldn’t it?

“The judge understood . . . he has teenagers, he knows what it’s like.”

Davey said she had tried and repeatedly failed to get her son out.

“I don’t know what’s going through his head. He’s just a lazy little b **** er.”

Davey does not work and is at home with him during the day.

Her son was one of four children, aged 37, 23 and 16. However, she believed her youngest son was the most difficult at getting to school.

Davey believed the $50 court fine was fair because she had always been prepared to accept responsibility for her son’s behaviour.

South Otago High School principal Mike Wright said he couldn’t comment specifically on the case.

However, he said the school placed “importance on getting all students engaged in education”.

The Ministry of Education said it had sent the parents a letter threatening criminal charges. A month later there was no change. “Considerable effort has been made by various state agencies,” a summary of facts said.