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Schleswig Administrative and Higher Administrative Court: Three days in prison for the mother

Photo: Markus Scholz/dpa

Because she doesn't send her son to school, a mother from Ostholstein has to go to prison for three days.

A spokesman for the Schleswig Higher Administrative Court confirmed to SPIEGEL on Friday that the woman's complaint against the arrest warrant issued by the Schleswig-Holstein Administrative Court at the beginning of February was rejected for formal reasons.

The woman filed the complaint personally - but this should have been done through a lawyer.

The arrest warrant therefore came into force.

The “Lübecker Nachrichten” had previously reported on the case.

According to the administrative court, the woman was initially still at large on Friday.

The arrest warrant has not yet been executed, a spokeswoman told the dpa on Friday.

»The execution is carried out by a bailiff.

Against this background, no specific date of entry into custody can be named.

Strongest means of enforcing compulsory schooling

According to court information, the mother's son from Ostholstein still appeared at school quite regularly until 2019/2020, and in 2022 the child was temporarily taken into care.

The mother later explained that her son was now being trained in the “Germanistic education system.”

The now confirmed forced detention serves the well-being of children and is one of the strongest means of enabling children to receive an education, said David Ermes, spokesman for the Kiel Ministry of Education, to the “Lübecker Nachrichten”.

»That's why we're doing everything necessary to enforce compulsory schooling.

The aim of all measures is to ensure that the affected child goes back to school.

The ninth chamber of the administrative court, which is responsible for school law, dealt with two cases of parental refusal to attend school in February.

In both cases, so-called compulsory alternative detention was ordered against the mothers of 12 and 15 year old boys.

The reason was the violation of compulsory school attendance at the places of residence in the Dithmarschen district and in Ostholstein.

After both mothers failed to pay a fine of 800 euros, the arrest warrants were issued.

Unlike the case of the mother from Ostholstein, the mother from Dithmarschen's complaint against her arrest warrant was successful at the end of February.

Here too, formal reasons were decisive: the Schleswig judges found the application from the Dithmarschen school authority to be insufficient.

Contrary to what was required, it was not transmitted electronically.

him/dpa