AIBU to want this parent jailed?

[MyWitzEnd]

They got a covid test result of positive on Saturday. In Monday they sent their year 7 child to school. Tuesday the child was tested, Weds positive result, Thurs the whole year group goes home for two weeks. As a teacher, and vulnerable, mixing with 700 kids a day, I want him jailed (in two weeks!!)

Jail - no obviously
However some people’s selfishness is astounding ! Of course we are at risk of catching the virus and tbh I am not someone who is overly anxious about that Fact - I stick to the guidance Because I’d hate to be the reason someone else caught it and that’s that .

But to deliberately send your kid to school in that scenario is just beyond selfish

I am reasonably sure there are laws about knowingly infecting people with an infectious disease. I think the knock on effects of the spread through a school ( and throughout the other households/in contacts) could be horrendous and that this should be taken seriously ( especially as a known positive result).

Fined yes

Jail? Don’t be stupid.

@IrmaFayLear don’t forget person D: orders test with no symptoms.
As much as I hate to admit it, one of the reasons for the massive shit show of trying to get a test is because of all the people who don’t understand when they actually need to be tested.

OP, having just spent 8 days isolating as a household because my DC had symptoms, but we couldn’t get our hands on a test for days and then had to wait a further 4 days for the (negative) results, YANBU.

Of course YABU.

Is there a law saying jail is used in this situation? If not then you are proposing a change to the law which I would find quite worrying.

Is it worth the time of taking it through court etc?

Also if it's a single parent, then there is the question of what happens to the children. No doubt you will say they should have thought of that before they broke the non existent law that prosecutes for this and can apply a prison term. They could be put in care.

The consequences and costs of your proposal are it out of step.

YABVVVU and I worry about the keenness seen since the start of the pandemic amongst quite a lot of people, to move more towards this type of society/ state.

61% agree this parent should be jailed (without trial?!) and all the costs and risks that come with that including potentially children taken into care.

Wow.

I’ve come across a lot of people who manage to rationalise their own breaches of the rules as being justifiable, whilst judging others for behaving selfishly. E.g. I know one person who insisted on seeing her grandkids all through the heart of lockdown because she decided that it would be “ridiculous” if the rules were intended to cover family, yet she had a go at her neighbour for breaking self-isolation to get some groceries after coming back from holiday from a listed country. I think, in her eyes, the virus is something that comes from foreign countries or is spread by rough types having raves, so it just doesn’t occur to her that it actually “counts” when she does stuff she’s not supposed to do.

I'm assuming you are just expressing your anger - in which case YANBU.

It isn't worth the court case etc. but I'd feel so angry at such behaviour that I would want a really effective punishment that didn't cost ££££ to the taxpayer, but caused the person extreme discomfort, some thing like the stocks

Yes, jail. No sympathy.

@1starwars2

Our school whole year, plus those on same transport all had to isolate for 2 weeks. Some schools are sending home whole secondary year group for one case....

Schools shouldn't be sending home full year groups without consulting the local health protection team. It may be that it appears to be one case that triggers it but in fact there are are a number of suspected cases within that year group population.

@corythatwas

Well, I don't blame you for being angry, that is totally irresponsible.

Otoh those who are talking about fines and prison as deterrents- are you aware that fines and prison are the threats already being made against parents of children who have too many sickness absences?

Now, I was a responsible parent and would far have preferred to go to prison for having kept other people safe; in fact, I would have risked prison to keep other people safe.

But those years of constant threats from the school and headmaster nearly broke me. The day my dd left school was one of the happiest days of my life.

If we are going to get parents behaving responsibly here, schools need to do a LOT to signal that normal sanctions for high absences will not apply, that your child will not be penalised, that you as a parent will not become an object of suspicion. They need to remember what decades of threats and suspicion have done to some parents and take it from there.

Unfortunately the schools don't make the decision to fine or not, it's government that do that.

@KenDodd

Unfortunately this is what the government is up against when trying to control this virus

Can I remind you of Dominic Cummings actions when they had covid and decided to travel the length of the country. The Gov stood right behind him. Lots of evidence that this was a turning point on individual actions re covid.

I have to agree. My town was responding well, and suddenly there were a lot more people not respecting the rules at the time. There has been a swing back now, despite us being near a city with a local lockdown.

If we can sentence this man, that affected 1 person in essence, www.google.com/amp/s/westbridgfordwire.com/jail-for-man-who-spat-at-community-protection-officer-and-claimed-to-have-coronavirus/%3famp
Then surely impacting on potentially hundreds deserves prison? Harsh, but after the first few were sentenced, it would act as a huge deterrent after the tabloids report it!

@NiceGerbil I think that the people voting jail need to find out more about how the law works

Vicky

So to clarify:

You want the law changed to include a prison term for those breaking (some? any?) of the covid trusted rules.

What sort of court would you see judging these cases? Magistrates?

The way you say jail no questions indicates you want them jailed immediately. Do you mean imprisoned on remand for however many months it takes to come to court? Or did you have a fast track imprisonment method in mind?

How do you feel about the possibility of the children being taken into care for this period (weeks/months/ could be years tbh as the system would be overwhelmed).

Really interested to hear your thoughts in more detail.

I presume the school is obliged to report the case to the local health authority and lack of isolation will come out. And should result in a fine....

@NiceGerbil

Of course YABU.

Is there a law saying jail is used in this situation? If not then you are proposing a change to the law which I would find quite worrying.

Is it worth the time of taking it through court etc?

Also if it's a single parent, then there is the question of what happens to the children. No doubt you will say they should have thought of that before they broke the non existent law that prosecutes for this and can apply a prison term. They could be put in care.

The consequences and costs of your proposal are it out of step.

YABVVVU and I worry about the keenness seen since the start of the pandemic amongst quite a lot of people, to move more towards this type of society/ state.

How much the actual cost is out of step surely depends on how much is saved by avoiding tighter lockdown measures. If the UK population aren’t total muppets you wouldn’t need to do it in a lot of cases before people got the message.

The OP is BU though. There ought to be a hefty fine, with fines being for each individual breach rather than just a single fine for breaching regulations. Then jail if the fines are not paid off within a reasonable time. Allowing people to pay it off a tiny bit a week isn’t likely to be much of a deterrent

Parent was an absolute twat!! Should be hugely fined.

Think sending the whole school year home is OTT mind. Surely the set up should be that sending the class home would be adequate?

tbh the way some people are flouting the regulations, i think a couple of days in chokey would be a much better deterrent.

I know tonnes of people who have broken the rules at one point or another.

If we put them all in prison (on remand while they await trial/ or with no trial I'm not sure what posters want) then there will hardly be anyone left out of prison.

Prison is for obvious reasons a covid hotspot. I think they have been releasing 'low risk' inmates early to mitigate this.

We'd have to build a lot of prisons and the care system would be overwhelmed. I suppose that if parents decide together to send a kid in, for the OP example, they would both be jailed.

So no I don't think the cost to society would be worth it in terms of monetary, damage to children being put in care, and a move towards a state where people are sent to prison immediately (with no trial/ awaiting trial) for breaking any of the constantly changing rules. That's police state stuff.

And what about all the people who work in the prison system being exposed to all this extra risk in circs when they will be unlikely to be able to take proper precautions as there will be huge overcrowding.

OP has not been back?

Could this thread be to gauge opinion on much harsher state enforcement of the (ever changing) rules?

He should be fined I think.

Ideally he would be jailed but it just wouldn't work.

I’m guessing jail is metaphorical i.e. that the punishment should be harsher.

My personal opinion is that breaking quarantine should carry an automatic fine of £5000. If you then infect someone while you were breaking quarantine there should be an additional fine of £10000. And for employers they should be able to consider breaking quarantine and thus putting their workforce at risk to be gross misconduct and grounds for instant dismissal.

The reason a lot of people don’t quarantine is because there is no deterrent to breaking the rules.