HOW easy it is to be judgmental – how easy and yet, sometimes, unfair too.
Truancy from school has always been a problem and the tendency for many of those whose children have never been guilty of this is to point the finger of blame at the parents.
"I'd get them out of bed and drag them by the ear to the school gates in a morning" is glibly offered.
Except that, even if the reluctant pupil accompanies his ear to the gates for 8.50am, there is still absolutely no guarantee that at 8.59am he or she will not be half-a-mile away again.
Then whose fault is it?
The case we report today, of the parents taken to court for the regular non-attendance of their 14-year-old son, will surely provoke more sympathy than criticism or derision.
Derby city councillor Fareed Hussain says court action is only a "last resort".
In this case, though, the fact that magistrates opted to impose a conditional discharge, rather than the prison sentences which they have dished out in some other cases, suggests they had a real understanding of the difficulties this couple face on a daily basis.
The boy often refuses to get out of bed. He has physically and mentally abused them and stolen from them. Police have warned them they cannot use force to get him out of bed.
What an ongoing nightmare for the couple. What can only add to their frustration is the fact that, a month after the court imposed a parenting order, they have heard nothing further.
That is outrageous. Whether or not these parents are failing, the system most certainly is.
Just as dispiriting is the fact that, after a community paediatrician decided Jack may be autistic and recommended an urgent appointment, he is on a 16-month waiting list.
That will seem like an eternity and, whatever may be said about lack of resources, it is an appalling condemnation of these support services.
