A LEAVING Cert student was humiliated in front of his classmates and told to leave because his parents had not paid his school fees, a court was told yesterday.
Ken and Emer Lee, the parents of Daragh Lee (18), are being sued by Sandford Park School in Ranelagh, Dublin, over €2,782.69 in unpaid school fees.
The student’s father told the Dublin District Court that Sandford had been “reckless and irresponsible” in not allowing his son to attend the school this year.
Daragh Lee had been through childhood leukaemia and an “acrimonious” four-year divorce involving his parents, he added.
“I want you to know that my son was refused permission to do his Leaving Certificate,” Mr Lee told Judge Mary Collins.
He said that when his son returned to Sandford on August 26th last year for the first day of the new school year, he was brought home again because of outstanding fees. As a consequence, his son did not sit the Leaving Cert and is now living in Finland, he told the court.
Fees at Sandford Park were just over €7,000 per year last year. Mr Lee, a retired RTÉ camera operator, admitted he had not paid the fees for the spring term because of financial difficulties.
However, he told the court he had given an undertaking to the school that they would be paid when the house which he and his ex-wife had owned in Stepaside was sold. It has since been sold.
The judge interrupted Mr Lee to say yesterday was not a formal hearing. It was not a day for him to air his side of the case, she said.
Mr Lee apologised to the judge and said a lot of things had “come down on top of him” including an order for repossession of the family home.
The school told the court that there seemed to be a dispute between Mr and Mrs Lee about who should pay the school fees.
It asked for the case to be heard in camera. Mr Lee countered by saying his son was now 18 and that the public were entitled to know what had happened.
The judge asked Mr Lee to write down his defence and submit it to the court. She adjourned the case for a full hearing in June.
