Impossible Positions - Courts Undermine Parental Authority

In June of this year, the Quebec Superior Court in Canada ruled in favor of a 12-year old girl suing her father because she wasn't allowed to attend a three-day in-province school trip marking her grade 6 class graduation.

There are a few things about this case that are just wrong.

Graduation from elementary school?! There was no such thing when I went to school, which wasn't that long ago. Heck, I didn't even attend my high-school graduation. Do we have to celebrate everything these days?

The girl's father had previously banned her from going online. Why? Because she posted pictures of herself on a dating site. Sweet kid. Oh, and the poor little darling has been fighting with her stepmother. That was when her father told her she couldn't go on the school trip.

The girl's lawyer said the trip was a unique event in her life. Sure, but when you're 12, every event is a unique event in your life. The girl will, I'm sure, have plenty of opportunities to see the rest of her country. Would she have been sad and disappointed? Certainly. Maybe that disappointment would have taught her to show some respect for her parents.

The lawyer also said the judge agreed that depriving the girl of the trip was an "excessive punishment." Hu?! Have these people not been reading the papers lately? Excessive punishment is locking your kid in a basement for years, not denying her a school trip.

The judge in the case, Madam Justice Suzanne Tessier, based her decision on Sections 159 and 604 of the Quebec Civil Code, which allows minors, in some circumstances, to initiate court proceedings relating to the exercise of parental authority. As the father's lawyer pointed out, however, these sections of the code are normally used in extreme circumstances, such as when a child needs to be removed from the influence of negligent parents.

There's nothing negligent about a father trying to exercise his authority in his home and, perhaps, teach his child a lesson in manners and respect. Unfortunately, that's becoming harder and harder for parents to do.

A friend of mine has a teenage daughter who refuses to go to school. The father has been informed by the courts that if his daughter misses any more time, he can be fined $200. So can he pick up his daughter and carry her to school? No, that would be assault. Can he lock her in the house to keep her from staying out all night and being too tired to go to school the next day? Nope, can't do that either. What can he do? Nothing. But he's still responsible.

There are some bad parents out there, parents who neglect or abuse their children, parents who set a bad example for their children, parents who make it necessary for the courts to step in to protect their children.

But there are also a lot of good parents out there who just want what's best for their kids, who appreciate the responsibility they have to instruct and discipline their children.

Unfortunately discipline is, today, a bad word. In the minds of some it has become synonymous with abuse. And our courts have put parents in an impossible position, holding them responsible for their children's actions, but taking away their authority to discipline their children.

How will this girl in Quebec react the next time her father restricts her actions in some way? She's probably learned her lesson well; she'll fight back and run crying to the authorities that she's been treated unfairly. As a result, she'll never learn to take responsibility for her own actions. And having grown up, will that suddenly change? No, she'll go from being an irresponsible, spoiled child to being an irresponsible, spoiled adult.

Thank you, Justice Tessier. You've just made the future of our society that much worse.