Kid kicked out of Alex - non-payment of fees

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I hadn't heard this until last night, surprised it hadn't read it on AAM!

Right, I get it - have the girl removed from the school if the parents haven't paid - but ffs, why let her start last September if fees were outstanding? Or let her finish out her last few weeks and not re-admit her for the next acedemic year...

To do that to a 14year old girl, in front of her classmates, three weeks before her Junior Cert (by way of an 'example' according to popular theory) is just plain bullying.

By all accounts, the mother has been on Gerry Ryan/Joe Duffy etc... stating that now she won't send her younger daughter there now. While I sympathise with her for her financial difficulties, thats a bit rich (excuse the pun) seeing as she couldn't afford to keep the first one in there.

I know of friends who are having to remove their kids from fee paying schools due to changes in financial circumstances - it must be traumatic enough to have to move schools etc..for a hormonal teenager without being singled out in front of your peers. I can see there being serious dip in enrolments for private schools next year.

I really feel for this poor young girl. Any thoughts?

Some (small) sympathy for the child but, in the overall scheme of things, fees were not paid, service was withdrawn. Little princesses will have to get used to a reduction in lifestyle and that includes private schools.

You won't ever hear the full story I suspect but I would imagine that there had been a lot of communication with the parents, it won't have come as a surprise, the parents may even have thought that the school would not dare.......etc.,etc. Child being used as a pawn to save face would be my view.

A lot of parents will be struggling with private school fees. I remember (foolishly ) offering to pay my god childs secondary school fees in another expensive fee paying school and almost fainting with relief when I heard that (a) that would not be necessary and (b) precisely how much they were.

mf

mf1 said:

Some (small) sympathy for the child but, in the overall scheme of things, fees were not paid, service was withdrawn. Little princesses will have to get used to a reduction in lifestyle and that includes private schools.

Click to expand...

I think that is a bit unfair. To remove a child from classes through no fault of the childs, 2 weeks before her juniour cert is a bit hard. I agree the parent hadnt paid the fees so the service should have been withdrawn. So they should have either sorted this out way earlier (i think is fees had been an issue for 2 years) or else leave her do the junior cert and tell the parents to find a new school for next year.

What I heard about this case ..

- the child's mother's version of events was the story until the school went public after she appeared on national radio.
- dispute of non-payment of fees had being ongoing for over a year
- mother was also coping with breakdown of her marriage and failure of a business
- school claim that parents had not engaged in any meaningful way over the amounts owed
- school dispute the claim over how the child was asked to leave the school.

It would appear that there was fault on both sides and, unfortunately, the child got caught in the middle. Neither the school nor the parents come out of this without blame.

I agree that the school should not have acted before the exams. Fee paying schools are a business but they should primarily act in the best interests of the child.

However, I have little sympathy with the mother. I simply dont believe the complete sob story that she has been trying to pay and the school are being bullies.

She is as guilty of using her daughter as a pawn. She must have seen this coming if she owes 20K over two years.

Sounds like the parents were given every chance to pay along they way. Child will be allowed sit her exams which is the main thing at the minute. Parents must take responsibility and if they knew they could'nt pay these fees they should have sent her to a public school last year.

Have to agree that this is more the parents fault and they only have themselves to blame. If they couldn't afford it why keep sending her there.

While this has only come out recently I think I heard that it happened before easter. Not sure how true this is or whether it makes a difference.

School dispute actually removing her from classroom and giving her a plastic bag to pack her things.

The timing of the whole thing seems incredibly bad. Certainly the child shouldn't have been taken back next year but why remove her two weeks before the end of term? That being said, the mother has also not been acting in her daughter's best interests by going so public on the whole thing and, apparently, not being entirely truthful (child being given a plastic bag to pack her stuff in etc).
I presume there's a lot been going on that we don't know about and, to be honest, I feel the mother's behaviour is very questionable.

Just read your post Peno. If it happened before Easter that would make a lot more sense. Sounds like the mother is doing a lot of stirring here. Can she not just accept that her daughter will have to go to an ordinary school for Leaving Cert. Didn't kill the rest of us.

Imagine having a mother who would do this!!!
Bad enough that things have changed for them but to then go on the national airwaves and make a show of yourself and your daughter!!
Would she book herself into the Blackrock Clinic without health insurance for something that she was entitled to in a public hospital ,knowing that she wouldn't be able to pay?
All she has succeeded in doing is that schools in that situation won't delay as long ever again in pulling the plug. I have no sympathy for her and am sorry for the child ,but think it's all the mother's fault for the way it has ended. Why should other parents have to subsidize her child? Children have always had to leave private schools when their parents means have changed and if that's the worse that happens her, so what?

Aside from everything else, the school have a responsibility to give adequate notice to the parents so they can find another school place. Very few schools accept enrollments over the summer (most are closed, as in no staff closed) so notice has to be given before the end of term. IMO.

I imagine there is more here than meets the eye. But the mother was irresponsible for not taking evasive action earlier. You cut your cloth and so on. Then, having realised that things were not going her way, she thought that outing the issue would garner support. Not the brightest thing to do.