So, a Brighton woman has been sent to prison for failing to prevent her children form truanting. Why? What harm has she done anyone?
Are the streets now a safer place with her behind bars? And what about the father? Does he escape punishment?
If it was so necessary to punish this women rather than her children, would a suspended sentence not have been more appropriate or is that just for violent offenders? Councillor Pat Hawkes reckons these children are being denied education by not being encouraged to go to school - how reasonably argued.
I suppose it has not entered her head that these girls simply did not want to go to school because they found it boring or the teachers themselves maybe had a responsibility to encourage them.
I know nothing about this poor woman and her children but am willing to bet Coun Hawkes has had a slightly more comfortable time of it.
Maybe the children should be put into her care while mum's away to see if she can do a better job of "encouraging" them.
-Gerard Blyth, St James's Street, Brighton
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