Pensioner in court over truant grand-daughter (From Tivyside Advertiser)

Pensioner in court over truant grand-daughter

1:44pm Thursday 21st March 2013 in News

A local grandmother who failed to send her 14 year-old granddaughter to school, appeared before Ceredigion magistrates on Wednesday afternoon.

The 68 year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, represented herself and pleaded guilty to being the person in care of the teenager, who failed to regularly attend a local secondary school between September 3 and November 19.

The court heard that the youngster lived with her disabled grandmother, and officers from Ceredigion’s education department visited the home after she became absent from school.

The child initially said there were no problems at the school, but later told officers she had been bullied via text messages, but no evidence was produced.

Legal proceedings began when the girl failed to return to education, and magistrates were told that she had not attended since their last meeting with the family at the school.  Her attendance rate was recorded as 6.3%

The grandmother told the court problems with attendance started when she broke her arm, and was unable to drive the girl to school.

She said: “I felt after that, because I could not take her to school, everything went down hill.
“I have tried my utmost to get her to school.”

She added that the girl was no being home-schooled and was hoping to attend a local college from September.

Magistrates imposed a 12-month conditional discharge, and ordered her to pay £150 costs.