Mum Fined for Holiday After Cancer - Not Considered Exceptional Circumstances
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Mum fined £800 for taking kids on holiday in term time to celebrate beating cancer told 'circumstances not exceptional' The Mirror Article.
Katie McDermott and husband Darren were fined £788 for taking the children out of school for six days and were told it wasn't "exceptional circumstances"
A mum who took her four children on a term-time holiday to celebrate her own cancer recovery has been fined £788.
Katie McDermott was told her reasons for taking two of her children out of class were not considered 'exceptional circumstances'.
The 36-year-old went through 18 weeks of chemotherapy and had a double mastectomy after finding a lump in her breast in November 2017.
Doctors declared the mum-of-four clear of cancer last year and, in October, she applied to Central Lancaster High School - which two of her children attend - for six days' leave in December.
The NHS worker and her husband Darren, 40, only got a response from the school seven weeks later - just two days before they were due to go away.
To their shock, the letter rejected the application but, with only 48 hours' notice, the family had no time to rearrange and travelled to Tenerife despite the school's ruling.
On their return they received a letter from the local authority, which passed the case on to Lancaster Magistrates' Court, and a fine was issued.
After appealing the decision, last month Katie and Darren, from Lancaster, Lancashire, were fined a total of £788 for taking their children out of school without permission.
The couple say their secondary school aged children, Joseph, 14, and Oliver, 12, had never applied for leave from their school before.
They added their five-year-old daughter Ava was given permission for holiday leave from her primary school without a problem and their youngest Ella, four, is still at nursery.
Read more of the article on The Mirror newspaper here:
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