Mother jailed for allowing daughter to play truant because she had 'a bad hair day'

Mother jailed for allowing daughter to play truant because she had 'a bad hair day'

Last updated at 12:49pm on 20th November 2007 Comments (1)

A mother has been jailed after her 14-year-old daughter routinely skipped school, racking up more than 180 missed lessons.

Dawn Joyce, 40, of Wolverhampton, was jailed for two weeks at the city's magistrates court because her daughter appeared so irregularly at The King's School in Tettenhall.

Her daughter's excuses ranged from bad hair days to having cat hair on her trousers. She said she was often too tired to attend, did not want to go to school on Mondays, needed to tidy her bedroom or could not find her sports kit.

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Mother Dawn Joyce faces jail after allowing her daughter to miss school with a series of bizarre and lame excuses

District Judge Shamim Qureshi described the case as "the worst aspect of society breakdown" to come before the courts and said prison might make the family realise things had to change.

Tracey Christie, for the city council, said: "All attempts to try and get this child into school have failed and all help offered by the local authority has failed.

"The reasons the daughter gave for not attending included cat hair on her trousers, dying her hair and not liking it, being tired and not wanting to attend on Mondays.

"Attempts were made to agree a modified timetable, but that failed too. The attempts made to get the pupil back to school were undermined."

Joyce, of Alderford Close, Pendeford, said her daughter was "scheming" to avoid school, even to the extent she would hide her uniform and shoes.

But she was found guilty after trial of failing to ensure the child's regular attendance at school between January and June.

"I have done all I can to try and get my daughter to school but there are a million reasons she gives as to why she can't go," she said.

"It is making my life hell. I've been on anti-depressants and don't think I can do much more."

District Judge Qureshi told Joyce: "A lot of the blame falls on your daughter. It should not have got this far."