Newspaper Público reports the 7th year student had said she no longer wanted to go to school, affirming her gypsy roots, and said she wanted to stay at home and help her mother who was sick.
The judge accepted the girl’s argument and said that, nowadays, young people can sometimes follow a path to adulthood that is as rewarding as going to school.
Citing the judge’s deliberations, Público went on to report that the fact that the young girl is “of Gypsy ethnicity, and wants to fulfil her traditions”, led the judge to “consider that she does not need to attend school”.
Faced with successive truancies by the student, the school group alerted the Commission for the Protection of Children and Young People (CPCJ) and heard the parents, the girl and the CPCJ worker assigned to the case.
According to Público, Judge Joana Gomes said that the girl “is already 15-years-old and has basic school skills, as necessary, to the development of her professional activity” and “social integration within her environment”.
The judge also took into account that the young woman was not “minimally motivated” to continue attending school.
“The development of the personality and abilities of young people, nowadays, for the pursuit of a decent life, adequate to social and legal rules, is sometimes shaped by diverse and equally rewarding paths, not simply the attending of schooling until adulthood, precisely as this case demonstrates.
“The child has shown no motivation to go to school, and has been helping the mother in domestic tasks, insofar as she cannot carry them out due to illness”, read the judge’s decision, which dates from January 5, 2017, but has only now come to light, the newspaper states.
Elaborating on the ruling, Público says the number of students who do not complete compulsory schooling – up until 12th year, or to the age of 18 – has been increasing, despite national and international recommendations.