Mom lets kids repeatedly skip school, A mother-of-seven has been locked up for repeatedly allowing three of her children to stay off school.
Alison Grainger repeatedly failed to ensure three of her children went to classes even though she had 21 previous convictions for truency.
Frustrated magistrates decided to activate a suspended six-week prison sentence and slapped jobless Grainger, of Newbiggin Hall, Newcastle, with a fresh six-week sentence to run concurrently.
Education welfare chiefs welcomed the result and said the decision to prosecute Grainger was a last resort.
Executive director of Children's Services John Collings said: 'Parents are legally responsible for getting their children to school.
'Where there are problems, schools and local authority services work very closely to help families to overcome any barriers to regular school attendance so that all of our young people can benefit from the opportunities of education.
'We are prepared, however, to use legal sanctions against parents of children who habitually miss school without reason.'
Grainger admitted three offences, each relating to separate children, at an earlier hearing, and was sentenced at Newcastle Magistrates' Court.
Melanie Bulman, prosecuting, told the court the prosecution was brought after two of the youngsters only attended four out of 42 school sessions between September and October last year.
A third child only went to 25 of 42 sessions.
Ms Bulman added that in this year's Spring term, one of the children had only been to school for one morning, while the other two had missed 10 and 20 sessions respectively.
She said: 'Non-attendance has a hugely detrimental effect on a child's education. The school says that when they do attend, they are usually late, despite their mother living only a two-minute walk away from the school.'
Grainger's suspended sentence had been issued after she was convicted of five similar offences, relating to five children, three of whom are the same as those involved in the latest case.
By the time Grainger was sentenced for the most recent offences, she had racked up 21 convictions for not making sure the youngsters went to class.
The court heard she had ignored a series of letters and requests from the school to discuss their attendance, leaving the council with no option but to take her to court.
Lewis Pearson, defending, said jailing her was not the answer to the family's problems. He said: 'It is not appropriate, it is not right. While it is within the court's power to address a case like this in that way, it is a scandalous issue.
'The last thing we want to do is to make the position of these children worse and their emergency reception into care would inevitably lead to this family being broken up.'
Grainger and her partner Darren Briggs, 39, have also been banned from keeping animals for five years after admitting cruelty offences at Newcastle Magistrates Court.
RSPCA inspectors found Grainger's German shepherd suffering from a host of health problems when they visited her house.
While there, they also examined a Dogue de Bordeaux belonging to Briggs which was severely underweight and barely able to walk.
Briggs, of West Denton, admitted two animal cruelty offences at an earlier hearing and was given an 18-month community order, with supervision, as well as a five-year ban from owning animals.
Grainger, who was sentenced at the same time as she was jailed for failing to send her children to school, was given an 18-month conditional discharge and also banned from keeping pets for five years.
2 years ago
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