U.K. court upholds fine for dad who took kid to Florida

LONDON— A British man who took his daughter out of school without permission to visit Disney World in Florida broke the law and must pay a penalty, the British Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.

The case has been heavily debated in Britain, pitting as it did the rights of parents to raise their children as they see fit against stiff truancy laws in a nation where school attendance is compulsory.

The father, Jon Platt, had argued that the government’s case represented a vast overreach by the “nanny state.”

The Supreme Court’s 18-page ruling overturned two lower courts’ decisions in favour of Platt, finding that he had no right to take his daughter out of school without a valid reason, such as illness.

The case originated in January 2015, when Platt asked to take his daughter, then 6, on a vacation to Disney World. The school refused permission. Nonetheless, Platt took his daughter on vacation from April 13-21, making her miss seven days of school. He was fined £120, about $180 at the time.

Platt sued, arguing that his daughter had an attendance rate of 95 per cent before the vacation and 90.3 per cent afterward.

Noting that the school generally considered 90 per cent to 95 per cent to be satisfactory attendance, he said he had done nothing wrong.

A local magistrate agreed, as did an appeals court, but the local council took the case to the Supreme Court.

Writing for the court, Justice Brenda Hale ruled that the requirement that a student attend school “regularly” meant “in accordance with the rules prescribed by the school,” not, as Platt argued, “with sufficient regularity.”