Mum faces jail for allowing grieving son to skip school
She thought she was doing the right thing by allowing her son to stay by her side to mourn after his father died.
And for letting her son Adam skip school for more than half his school year, Ms Tracey Fidler is now facing jail.
Ms Fidler's fiance was killed by a drunk driver when he was cycling in Berkshire, UK, last year and the driver was sentenced to more than 10 years' jail.
Even though Adam, 11, has now enrolled in secondary school, his father's former employer, Reading Borough Council, is prosecuting Ms Fidler for Adam's poor attendance record - being present in just 45 per cent of his classes - in Battle Primary School in Reading.
Government rules state that a child can only be absent if they are too ill to go in to school or the parent has advance permission from the school.
According to Mirror Online, Ms Fidler said that Adam, her youngest of five children, was devastated after his father died and was afraid to go to school for fear that when he came home, his mother would not be there.
She said: "After the crash, Adam was in bits.
"He didn't want to leave me."
Ms Fidler has appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to allowing her son to play truant.
She said: "They want to put me in prison.
"I just can’t believe it because Adam is now thinking he is going to lose his mum.
"He has already lost his dad."
Mail Online reported that the Reading Borough Council has said that they want to have a meeting with Ms Fidler as soon as possible so that they can resolve the matter quickly.
Ms Fidler's friend, Ms Amy Parks, has started an online petition to help her.
In the petition, which has since garnered 5,000 signatures, she wrote: "(Adam) was not playing truant, he was grieving. They all still are! Tracey now has just two weeks to build her case against the school, and to defend herself, and her family.
"If this fails, the reality is that she could get a custodial sentence, for something that is the result of something that was crushingly, so far out of her control.
"She did not ask for any of this to happen, and Tracey and her children have coped the best they possibly could up until now, but we feel the way she is being treated is unfair and unjust!"
Ms Parks wrote that Ms Fidler was just doing her best to protect her family.
"And loving and protecting her children is the only thing Tracey is guilty of."
Source: Mirror Online, Mail Online
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