Mother who taught son at home is fined £5 over his absence from school

A District Court judge yesterday convicted a mother under the School Attendance Act and ruled that her 14-year-old son would …

A District Court judge yesterday convicted a mother under the School Attendance Act and ruled that her 14-year-old son would receive a more suitable education at school than at home.

Mrs Christine Best, of Stacks Mountain, Kilflynn, Co Kerry, was fined £5 by Judge Mary O'Halloran at Listowel District Court for the non-attendance of her son, William, at Dromclough National School between December 1996 and June 1997.

Proceedings concerning Mrs Best's other children, Hazel, aged 11, and Niall, aged 16, were dismissed as the children have returned to school. Mrs Best has been educating William at home in what expert witnesses in previous hearings described as "a house with books everywhere".

The case has been before the High Court and Supreme Court since 1997, when Judge O'Halloran ruled in the District Court that Mrs Best was not giving her children "a suitable elementary education" at home.

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The owners of a smallholding near Listowel, the Bests moved there from East Sussex in England 11 years ago. Mrs Best is taking a degree in complementary medicine by correspondence with the University of Wales and is in the third year of a four-year programme. Mr Best does carpentry and stonework.

The Bests are members of the Home Educators Network.