[philip.j.fry]

For my part, I believe that the school (counsellors) acted properly with regards to the law. I also feel that they acted properly according to my morality (as far as I can determine from the article). I am of the opinion that although parents assume the top-level responsibility that the responsibility is also shared between the different parties that care for that child. Also, at the age of 14, the girl was at an age where she was beginning to take responsibility for herself. In this case, the girl sought adult guidance from a responsible source (well I should hope that the school counsellors were responsible) about what her choices were, she made that choice. I believe that the counsellors acted properly and had a duty to the girl not to inform her parents against her wishes. Contrary to what the mother believes it does seem that the girl was being looked after properly.

The point people have been making about 'what if she were to break a window' is interesting and I've had to think about that one a bit. The conclusion that I have come to is that for a start, not every misdemeanour committed by a child in school is reported back to the parents. Secondly, in those situations, the school defines the punishment and informing the parents is part of the punishment. Finally and most importantly, from my moral point of view the girl had not done anything wrong, she had made a mistake but in the solution to the mistake she learnt a very hard lesson (call that her punishment if you will) but she acted properly and sought adult guidance from a source that one would hope were well trained to deal with the situation.