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Can the school stop me from attending the school ball?
If the “fees” are really donations, you should not be stopped from buying a ticket to the school ball, even though school balls are extra-curricular activities. To stop you from buying a ticket would be penalising you for your parents’ decision about whether to make a donation to school that year. (However, school staff can get annoyed, as from their point of view it looks like your family won’t make a donation to the running of the school but money can be found for you to attend the school ball, which is an extra-curricular activity. Some students save their own money for the school ball, while their parents decide what donations to make).
If the fees are really owed to school (e.g. for a previous school trip that wasn’t part of the curriculum), this is a “debt” and your school would be allowed to use the money for the ball ticket to help pay off the existing debt. Bu they don’t usually do this; often they won’t accept the money at all.
Many students contact us a couple of days before the ball, saying they have been refused a ticket. It is harder to help at this stage, so if you think there may be a problem about unpaid fees or donations and tickets for the school ball, you should ask your caregivers to talk to your school to try and sort something out before tickets go on sale.
Sometimes there is a disagreement about whether the fees are really just a donation or whether they must be paid. If this happens, you may need some help. Your parents could ask the Ministry of Education to call the principal to talk about it (see “What if I need more help”). Again, it is better if you sort this out before the school ball tickets go on sale or you may miss out.
Many school principals say that school balls have no educational purpose, and are not even extra-curricular activities. Therefore, they believe you can only attend if you are invited (by the school administration, such as the principal). A judge has never decided this so we can’t say what the answer is for certain.
If things can’t be sorted and an independent person (such as a judge or a mediator at the Disputes Tribunal) does decides you missed out unlawfully, you may be able to get some compensation from your school for what you have gone through by being unlawfully stopped from attending the school ball. You are probably more likely to get compensation if it is your last year at school. You would need to talk with a lawyer about a case like this.
If the fees are really owed to school (e.g. for a previous school trip that wasn’t part of the curriculum), this is a “debt” and your school would be allowed to use the money for the ball ticket to help pay off the existing debt. Bu they don’t usually do this; often they won’t accept the money at all.
Many students contact us a couple of days before the ball, saying they have been refused a ticket. It is harder to help at this stage, so if you think there may be a problem about unpaid fees or donations and tickets for the school ball, you should ask your caregivers to talk to your school to try and sort something out before tickets go on sale.
Sometimes there is a disagreement about whether the fees are really just a donation or whether they must be paid. If this happens, you may need some help. Your parents could ask the Ministry of Education to call the principal to talk about it (see “What if I need more help”). Again, it is better if you sort this out before the school ball tickets go on sale or you may miss out.
Many school principals say that school balls have no educational purpose, and are not even extra-curricular activities. Therefore, they believe you can only attend if you are invited (by the school administration, such as the principal). A judge has never decided this so we can’t say what the answer is for certain.
If things can’t be sorted and an independent person (such as a judge or a mediator at the Disputes Tribunal) does decides you missed out unlawfully, you may be able to get some compensation from your school for what you have gone through by being unlawfully stopped from attending the school ball. You are probably more likely to get compensation if it is your last year at school. You would need to talk with a lawyer about a case like this.
YouthLaw |
Latest page update: made by YouthLaw
, Aug 13 2009, 10:15 PM EDT
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445 words added view changes - complete history) |
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Keyword tags:
fees
school balls
More Info: links to this page
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| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | ||
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| VotP | A way of extortion? | 1 | Feb 25 2010, 7:11 PM EST by YouthLaw | ||
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Thread started: Aug 28 2009, 8:07 AM EDT
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Earlier last month, a few weeks before the school ball, my class had an English Assessment that was due in during the last week of the term.
However, my class had just come fresh off another assessment and we were pretty much forced to plan a six minute seminar presentation in a matter of couple of days, in which you can imagine the workload of a Year 13 student is pretty big. Since no-one was ready for the Seminar, my teacher got the school's AP to impound our ball tickets until we did the assessment. Although this was long gone, and I didn't suffer from this as I had my mother ring up the school, as she is well versed in student rights, I have a very strong feeling my teacher may repeat her actions again next year as she is able to pull some strings, especially with the school's Assistant Principal of Curriculum. Can my school do this? I would also like to add that my class had already paid for the ball tickets. |
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