Judge Alan Mitchell told the youth he must choose who will be jailed for 21 days and who will receive a suspended sentence during a case brought against the boy's parents at Galway District Court.
The 15-year-old from Galway is a repeat truant and continued bunking off even after he was made aware of the possible legal consequences for his parents.
Skipping class: An Irish youth (not pictured,
file image) has been told to send either his mother or his father to
prison by a judge after a case was brought against the parents for
allowing him to play truant
He added that if needs be the teenager should attend Galway District Court today to make the decision, reports the Irish Independent.
'If every teenage child could direct whether to go to school or not there would be anarchy in this country,' he added, before describing the current situation as 'totally unacceptable'.
'He can consider which of his parents he wants to go to prison for 21 days and which gets the suspended sentence.'
Paul McCavera, Galway city education
welfare officer, told the court that the teenager had missed 91 days of
school out of 114 this school year so far.
- Judge Mitchell
Mr McCavera said there had been a 'long history of engagement with the family' but contact had since ceased.
Mr McCavera added that a range of support services had been offered to the family both inside and outside of the school, but they had failed to take advantage.
Both parents had previously been summonsed to court but the father had failed to attend and a bench warrant was issued for him.
He rejected an assertion from the family's solictor Alma Whelan, that the family had done everything they could to persuade him to go to lessons.
The court also heard that the boy in question was 'a very pleasant child' who had no discipline problems while in school.
'He does not have any special education needs and there are no discipline issues in the school. He is not disruptive, as a child he is very pleasant,' added Mr McCavera.
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