broken window and school insurance

andygb

the_cat wrote: »

An accident? No it wasn't!

Exactly! Why is it an increasingly obvious fact, that some people do not want to take responsibility for their children's actions?
The fact that the OP cannot seem to tell right from wrong, may give a little hint as to why this child behaved as he did in the first place.

jellyhead

kitschkitty wrote: »

How old is he, becuase I think my response would be different depending on if he was 5 or 15.

I think an afternoon's seclusion would only happen at high school, so age 11+?

I'd pay the bill anyway, regardless of whether it was my 6 year old or teenager though.

Welshwoofs

Another one for coughing up here I'm afraid. Whilst the breaking of the window wasn't intended, your son would know that pelting a wall that has a window in it with stones may well result in that window being broken.

I'd also be asking him why he was throwing stones at the wall in the first place, the risk of chipping any painted rendered surface, smashing windows or having stones ricocheting off the wall and hitting other kids in a playground scenario is rather high.

bestpud

I'm afraid I'm going to say cough up as well.

I'm not sure an afternoon in exclusion is any real punishment for an action likely to lead to someone being hurt or property damaged.

I would either deduct it from his pocket money and/or other money he may have, or find something he can do to build up the money. Then I'd ask the school if he can pay in instalments and I'd get him to go and pay it to them so the consequence is driven home loud and clear.

Depending on his age and ability to repay, you may need to pay a proportion of it though, I guess.

I'm sure it's an expense you could do without but I do think your son can learn a valuable lesson from it.

pogofish

Back when I worked in schools, the local authority cut whole swaithes of stuff off the insurance cover in order to save money - Broken windows were one of them (along with computers, AV gear etc). They just got paid straight out of the maintenance/appropriate budget and windows/malicious damage was charged at cost where the culprit was known and the matter was dealt with within school.

So this may be exactly what is happening here.

If you can't afford it all in one go, you should probably be able to arrange a pay-up schedule at a more bearable rate with the school. Have a word with them.

BlueAngelCV

I would send the invoice back. I don't think that they have any grounds to ask you to pay.

Yes the child was being irresponsible but £150 is a big price to pay for that.

They cannot charge the child as he is a minor so they are effectively trying to charge you as his parent. Except they were in loco parentis at the time not you so surely it is their responsibility.

This is just "one of those things" that schools need to deal with and they can't try and pass it off to the parents.

jellyhead

Has it been confirmed that the child is 11+? Does he need one to one supervision, is he statemented for special needs? If not then I think it's reasonable to assume that he knew enough to not throw stones near windows? He could have hurt somebody.

how are they going to stop him doing it again?

[Deleted User]

My DH works as an It manager in a special needs school, so he sees damage done over a school term.

However I have just read SOME of this thread out to him in an indigdent way and he replied:-

"A girl recently threw a colour photocopier across the room causing £1000 worth of damage, but as the girl isn't in family care but social services, there is no-one to pay the for the damage. In fact the bill will be £1900 as the leasing company for the copier will expect it to be replaced".

Hope that helps.

conradmum

If it were my child he'd be paying for the damage out of birthday and Christmas presents lost and he'd be writing a letter of apology to the school. Throwing stones is stupid and dangerous. Your child needs to understand this.

mynameistallulah

BlueAngelCV wrote: »

I would send the invoice back. I don't think that they have any grounds to ask you to pay.

Yes the child was being irresponsible but £150 is a big price to pay for that.

They cannot charge the child as he is a minor so they are effectively trying to charge you as his parent. Except they were in loco parentis at the time not you so surely it is their responsibility.

This is just "one of those things" that schools need to deal with and they can't try and pass it off to the parents.

So teaching a child good manners and not to damage property should not begin at home? Please tell me you don't have children!