Dad Behind Bars
A juvenile court judge in Ohio ordered 40 year-old Brian Gegner to make sure his high school dropout daughter earned her GED.
But when teenaged Brittney didn’t hit the books hard enough to pass the test, the judge threw the book at Brian Gegner, ordering the father jailed because the daughter failed.
Should a father be responsible when his 18 year-old daughter can’t do the math?
Yes, said the judge, who did the math like this: 6 months in jail for Brian Gegner for contributing to the unruliness of a minor by not following the court order to make Brittney get her GED.
Brittney—who lives with her mother, her one year-old daughter, and her boyfriend—started skipping school around fifth or sixth grade. It’s “ridiculously wrong” she said of her father to be jailed because of her failings.
Her mother volunteered to be locked up instead, noting that Brittney is almost 19. “She’s an adult now,” said Shana Roach, “and it’s not right to rip an innocent man from his home.”
But the judge stood firm, saying that the court retained jurisdiction because Brittney was a juvenile when the truancy case began.
Outraged child and family advocates urged supporters to call the judge and the governor of Ohio to demand Brian Gegner’s release from jail. Under the judge’s logic, they argued, the mothers and fathers of more than a million high school dropouts across America should all be jailed as well.
Within a week, the judge relented and released Brian Gegner on the condition that Brittney take classes to complete her GED by the next scheduled court date in July 2008. And the judge issued an ominous warning: if Brittney doesn’t attend classes four days a week, he’ll send her father back to jail.
Brittney’s step-mother is worried that jail time will cause Brian Gegner to lose his job. They tried to keep Brittney in school, she said, but “You’d take her to school and she’d go out the other door.”
Tell us what you think: What are the limits of a parent’s responsibility in educating a child? Does the lesson of jailing a parent get an A or an F?
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Responsibility Misplaced and Equal Punishment
Responsibility misplaced: yet another example of a nation where we’ve decided to place responsibility squarely on the shoulders of anyone but the person to whom it belongs. Yes, parents should be held accountable for things such as contributory negligence, but it’s ludicrous to take away more and more corrective tools from parents and then hold them responsible for the poor decisions of their children.
Equal punishment: if (and I stress “if”) our legal system has come to the conclusion that the parent is responsible (and, apparently, imprison able) for the misdeeds of their children, then who may I ask should be jailed first for the multitudes of parentless children who go the same way? Which government official or politician should be taken to task first?
Dave Washburn | 1 year, 8 months ago
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Thomas Jefferson warned us...
This is a classic case of a runaway judiciary. Some Judge gets uppity and starts making law like he’s the kind of the land. He decides what’s best, and no one can contradict him or remove him. Thomas Jefferson warned us of this WAY back when the check-and-balances system we use and love was made. There just aren’t enough checks and veto power against the Judiciary branch by the Legislature. The Legislature, led by the people of the United States, should be able to overturn a Judge’s decision. The Judge should be accountable to the people, not the other way around.
Julian Amici | 1 year, 7 months ago
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Putting the father in jail will not give his daughter a sense of responsibility. Put her behind bars, let her see a documentary on not getting an education and the consequences that it has; maybe that will open her eyes. She has to see herself as being worthy of an education,as while as daughter.
rosemarie james | 1 year, 6 months ago
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He shouldn't be jailed but he's not blameless.
“Brittney…started skipping school around fifth or sixth grade.” While I don’t think the father should be jailed for his daughter failing to get her G.E.D., he’s not blameless. She showed early signs of failing in school, I really don’t think there’s a point in her father trying now – court or not court. At 18, she has to WANT IT. Oh, and I don’t want it to make it sound like the mother is blameless. She isn’t. My mom is a single mom and worked hard to keep me in school and successful in school. I used to sleep in class, never did homework, and I just didn’t care. Due to her hard work, I am now a jr. in college. I am a double major, apart of four clubs at school, and I’ve been on the dean’s list the entire time I’ve been in college.
Mara | 1 year, 5 months ago
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father jailed
If a parent can prove that they sincerely tried to get their child to attend school and the child made the adult decision to not follow the rules, why does the judge seek to punish the adult. Did anyone (a professional) bother to ask the child why they were choosing not to go school? If we keep beating around the bush and showing our children that someone else will be held responsible for their wrong doing – and they are fully aware of this, they will continue to do just that – make the wrong choice. Why are we so afraid to show them what can honestly happen if they choose the wrong decision. Why can’t we show them that they are the ones that are responsible for their own actions and what they choose to do will bring consequences if needed. Being a parent myself, I would have told the judge that if my child was not going to follow the rules by choice, and he/she was making that choice just because they didn’t want to go, then put my child in a detention center until he/she has passed the requested GED certificate that the judge ordered.
Red | 1 year, 4 months ago
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World gone crazy
My first thought after reading this was…does this judge have children and has he been able to force them to do everything he says? Maybe the judge has a home full of compliant children who do what they are told, and if so, he needs to spend a day with a child with a different temperament.
How does a parent make their child study? She could be sitting there staring at her books, and not studying it…you cannot make someone learn. Parents should only be responsible for making their children go to school until the age required by law and should strongly encourage them to graduate, but I do not know how you can force an adult to do something they are not willing to do. I had some 3rd graders last year who were truant often. THOSE parents should be responsible for getting their kids to school…but punishing parents for decisions of their adult children? That is way out of line.
Anonymous | 1 year, 2 months ago
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Dad Behind Bars
I think that’s insane. I don’t know the specifics of the case, but if this is the story of a good Dad taking care of his child and his family and his bratty child has opted to be a menace, let her be a menace in jail and let her father continue to be the provider for the members of his family who actually gives a fat rat.
I would like to see this judge be as crucial on those trifling fathers, who have long range ramifications to the damage they bestow in not paying child support or being a father to their children and let him put them in jail.
This current route is sending the message that the good father is to be punished while the trifling father is allowed to continue to live a good life. With all the travesties going on in the country and all the negatives children are already exposed to; do we really want to send the message that good is bad and bad is good?
Anonymous | 1 year, 2 months ago
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You can leed a horse to water but ...
It appears the qualification of Judge in Ohio is…. not common sense. So Dad loses his job and now there is no money for the GED classes… that makes about at much sense as locking up the Dad for what his child is unwilling to do. This judge is clueless. You can tell the child they need to be in school, and you can take them to class. But no one… no parent, no teacher, no judge, can make them learn. Learning takes individual effort. You would think that of all people a Judge would know that considering the amount of education that a law degree takes.
David Spence | 9 months, 3 weeks ago
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Are you guilty or innocent? Charged people treated
We are putting together a petition in the State of Washington, when a person is found not-guilty in the court of law; they would automatically destroy their files. Instead the only way to get rid of the charge is paying an attorney take it to court and having them deny you your right to have your charge destroyed. Constitutional rights are at stake here. Judges mention there is nothing in the law that requires me to destroy the record. There is supposed to be a presumed innocence until proven guilty. When a person is found not guilty, the prosecution has a right to keep the charge on your record for the rest of your life. This is not right to victimize the suspect twice for something they had not done. What do you think?
Alan Otter | 9 months, 2 weeks ago
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Nice!
flashplayer | 8 months, 2 weeks ago
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