Mum Hauled to Court for Taking Asthma Attack Son Out of School

A mother who faced jail after she was accused of letting her son play truant has been cleared after it emerged he was being treated in hospital for a string of severe asthma attacks.

Nicola Newns, 39, had already lost one son, Ben, to the condition in 2014, and so was in fear for her other son Jacob, 16, who repeatedly collapsed at home due to his asthma.

While Mrs Newns was in the back of an ambulance rushing Jacob to hospital, she received a call from education officials demanding to know why the youngster was not in lessons.

She was issued with a £60 fixed penalty notice by Salford City Council saying Jacob's attendance at Buile Hall Visual Arts College was 'unsatisfactory.'

Mrs Newns refused to pay, and was ordered to attend court to face an offence under the 1996 Education Act. But a district judge at Manchester Magistrates Court reviewed the medical evidence and threw the case out.

A spokesman for the school said:

"To get any case to court, schools have to go through rigorous systems of checks and consultations which involve multiple agencies and of course, the family. It would be inappropriate for us to comment on the range of intervention we adopted with Jacob and his family other than to say that it was extensive."

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