In today’s post we comment on an issue closely related to the ‘back to school’ of the academic year 2021-2022 and its relationship with the Covid-19 pandemic.
If we have already talked on several occasions about the possible discrepancies regarding vaccination against this variant of the coronavirus, in this case we focus on another possible case of doubt on which the courts are also pronouncing. Can a parent refuse to take their children to school for fear of Covid-19?
The answer can be found, among others, in an order issued by the Court of First Instance and Instruction No. 2 of Tafalla, which analyzes a case of discrepancy in the exercise of parental authority due to disagreements arising between the parents due to the refusal of the father to take the children to school on the grounds that he is afraid of Covid-19.
Moreover, the said parent, the order recalls, keeps them at home, without providing them with an adequate education to which they are entitled, acknowledging that he does not take them to school out of “fear”.
“This situation is seriously harming the minors, who are in a shared custody regime for alternate weeks, in such a way that the week they are with the mother the minors attend school regularly, and the week they are with the father they do not attend school and are (…) away from their school social environment, violating the fundamental right to education of the minors.”
The answer in this case is to impose on the father the obligation to take the children to school and, if he persists in his refusal during the time he has custody of the children, to attribute to the mother the power to decide whether the children have to attend school in person in the current situation of Covid-19.
The order, reported in Diario La Ley, recalls that the mother has also had doubts and fear in taking her children to school but, in spite of this, she has continued to take them.
The order also points out that her fear has been relativized when she learned about the protocols activated by the school, as well as when she received a communication from the school itself reminding her of the obligation for the children to attend school.
According to this resolution, the e-mails provided to the process reveal that the father, before the existence of this procedure, had considered (and communicated it to the school) to return his children to school, although in the end this was not the case.
The facts suggest that it was the filing of this lawsuit that accelerated the father’s decision to take his two children back to school.
In any case, and beyond the details of the specific case, what seems clear is that the right to education belongs to the child, and not to the parents.
In this sense, the judge of this court assures that children go to school to learn, but also (and fundamentally) to interact with other children, something very necessary at times like these, in which the social distance imposed by the health crisis makes everything more difficult.
This is a social need that cannot be met by their parents, people who, moreover, are not exempt from the risk of contagion.
In addition, one of the children suffers from autism, and in this case it is especially important to maintain their routines and avoid delays in their learning.
Lastly, the car assures that the fact that the people in whom the children “trust the most” “transmit fear, ideas or negative feelings to them, does not help at all” to overcome the stressful situation they would be living.
This situation, in the case of one of the children, “will force him to see a psychologist”. If you need help from a family lawyer in Barcelona to deal with a similar case or to negotiate with your partner any aspect related to the custody of your children, contact us without obligation.
