Mum faces prison over truant son

Oct 7 2006 By James Cartledge, Birmingham Mail

A DESPERATE mum who is facing jail for failing to send her son to school today pleaded: "What more can I do?"

Mandy Rawlinson's 15-year-old son Xavier has not been to classes for more than a year.

She said she had tried everything but the 5ft 9in teenager now towers over her 5ft frame and she can no longer drag him to the school gates.

The 40-year-old single mum was convicted of failing to ensure Xavier attended lessons and will be sentenced on Monday.

"People may say I'm his mother and it's my responsibility to get him to school," Ms Rawlinson said. "But if they were me, what would they do?

"He wouldn't even go to school when a policeman arrived to take him. It would be nice to get some answers but nobody can say anything to me.

"I used to be able to drag him to school when he was younger but he's far too big for that now. I have exhausted every avenue.

"I've tried pulling the duvet off his bed to make him get up, throwing water over him, confiscating his Playstation and stopping his money.

"But nothing works. He is adamant he will not go to school. Even now the reason is a mystery. He says he just doesn't like school. That's all anyone can get." Ms Rawlinson, aged 40, lives alone with Xavier at The Moorings, Oldbury. She was prosecuted by Sandwell Council when he failed to attend Tividale High School last September and October.

The teenager does not receive home tuition and spends most of his time in the family house. His mother, a shop worker by trade, was forced to abandon an HND beauty course at Birmingham College of Food and Technology to supervise him full-time.

Ms Rawlinson said Xavier's reading had suffered because of his lack of school attendance. She said his problems began when he was just seven and not even a psychologist had been able to get to the bottom of it.

Ms Rawlinson denied failing to send Xavier to school when she appeared before West Bromwich Magistrates' Court but was found guilty after a trial and warned she could be jailed.

"I don't have a criminal record and the prospect of prison is not something I want to think about," she said.

* Should parents face jail if their children don't go to school or should the children be punished? Tell us what you think at www.birminghammail.net/news/yoursay