British mom jailed for child's truancy

NORFOLK, England, April 16 (UPI) -- A British mother has been sentenced to 12 weeks in jail because of her teenage daughter's chronic truancy.

Alison Thomas, the county council cabinet member for Children's Services, said the sentence should be a warning to other parents, The Daily Telegraph reported.

"We have to show that we will be tough on these parents for the sake of their children and for the sake of other children whose parents are not ensuring they receive the education they are legally entitled to," Thomas said. "We know that bringing cases like this to court makes a difference.''

Lisa Ashford, a mother of five, received the sentence after her 15-year-old daughter, Racheal, had missed 100 days of school in four months at King Edward VII school in King's Lynn, Norfolk, England, and only 19 of the absences were authorized.

Ashford did not respond to letters or attend meetings about the absences.

Over the past seven years, the Telegraph said, she had five previous convictions linked to poor school attendance among three of her other children.

Ashford's lawyer, Alison Muir, said her client had a hard time coping with her daughter.

"The offense that my client has committed is that she was not able to force a willful 15-year-old to go to school," Muir said. "She is not the author of her own misfortune. She has tried what she can."