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[Alison J Stevens]

Council forced to apologise for prosecuting parents of boy who suffered 'school phobia'By Laura Clark
Last updated at 4:43 PM on 17th November 2009

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Education chiefs who prosecuted a teenager's parents for allowing him to play truant have been forced to apologise after the boy claimed he had 'school phobia'.
The youngster missed months of lessons after becoming anxious about returning to his Suffolk secondary school following a viral illness.
The boy said staff made sarcastic remarks when he tried to attend classes, with one saying 'on a chair' when he asked where he should sit.
The schoolboy, now 16, developed chronic anxiety following time off due to a viral illness when he first joined the school. (Posed by models)
The teenager's failure to regularly attend prompted his school in conjunction with Suffolk County Council to take his parents to court for condoning truancy.
They could have been landed with a jail term or £2,500 fine.
But magistrates dismissed the case and now a tribunal has ruled the council discriminated against the boy in launching the prosecution.
They said education bosses failed to take proper account of the boy's mental health.

But the council today said it was 'disappointed' by the ruling and may appeal.

It has been ordered to write to each of the parents and the boy apologising 'unreservedly' for its treatment of him.
The boy's father: 'All the people that we have come across, whether that be barristers, solicitors or doctors, they all said the same thing, that this prosecution is wrong and should not be happening'
Head teachers' leaders have previously warned that school phobia could be used as a 'classic excuse' for not attending lessons.
'You have to get to the root of the pupils' problem - it may be their relationship with teachers, bullying or just that they haven't settled in,' said David Hart, former general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers.
'Transferring the child to another school could be the solution. But school phobia is just an excuse for failure to attend.'
But the boy's parents insisted the school and council failed to understand his mental health problems and failed to properly cater for his needs.
His problems began when he developed chronic anxiety after taking time off due to a virus soon after joining the east Suffolk secondary school.
The teenager was diagnosed by a clinical psychologist as suffering from school phobia, a condition described as an irrational fear of going to school. It is increasingly cited by psychologists and is said to affect one to two per cent of the school population.
The youngster, now 16, would often refuse to leave the house and suffer panic attacks which would result in him rocking backward and forward and clutching his knuckles.
It also led to him distancing himself from friends and social situations.
His GP had told magistrates: 'He found that attending school was highly anxiety-provoking and when he attempted to attend school he found he had great difficulty with that.
'I think attending school full-time certainly caused him significant psychological problems.'
At a one-day trial in June at South East Suffolk magistrates court, the council said the boy missed 59 per cent of registration sessions over a given time period.
But the court cleared the parents of allowing their son to play truant.
At the same time, the parents took the council and school to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal for unlawfully discriminating against their son by failing to acknowledge his mental health problems.
The tribunal found in their favour, prompting the boy's father to declare: 'We are very pleased with the outcome and very pleased that an external body has come to the same conclusion as we have all along.
'All the people that we have come across, whether that be barristers, solicitors or doctors, they all said the same thing, that this prosecution is wrong and should not be happening.
'The judge and her colleagues listened very carefully and came to the same conclusion that we thought they would, which was that the prosecution should not have happened and if people had been better informed and better trained to understand mental health they would not have kept pushing down the line that they did.'
He added: 'The decision means it will benefit other children tremendously in the long run.
'My only want is that my son grows into the person that he would have been by now if it was not for the prosecution. The whole thing has held us all back.'
In addition to letters of apology, the council has been ordered to send key officials for training on the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
The parents should invited to observe this training, the tribunal said.
Adrian Orr, a senior adviser at Suffolk's Children and Young People's Services, said: 'Both Suffolk County Council and the governing body of the school have now received the decision of the tribunal and are studying it carefully.
'We are disappointed by the decision and are currently taking legal advice on whether or not there are grounds for appe

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