Furious Manchester father 'fines' his son's striking teachers for missing ... trends now
A furious father has 'fined' his son's teachers for going on strike after he was hit with a £240 penalty for taking his family on holiday during term time.
Steven Doherty lashed out after he was penalised for taking his 13-year-old son Alfie, a pupil at St Ambrose Barlow RC High School, in Salford, Greater Manchester, on holiday.
The 44-year-old booked a holiday for the Easter break before his lad had been placed in a high school and claims he didn't realise schools in the area had different term times, insisting the holiday mix up had been an innocent mistake.
Now the father-of-five has slammed the school for its 'hypocritical' stance allowing teachers to go on strike last Wednesday - in a move he says broke the same attendance rules he claims to have been penalised for.
Sending off his tongue-in-cheek email on Wednesday, the fuming mechanic 'fined' two of Alfie's teachers £120 each for joining the picket last week instead of being in lessons. He even included his payment details and a deadline of February 14.
Steven Doherty (right) emailed his son's school to 'fine' his lad's teachers after they went on strike last week. Steven is pictured with his wife Nicola, 44
Steven lashed out after he was penalised for taking his 13-year-old son Alfie, who is a pupil at St Ambrose Barlow RC High School, in Salford, Greater Manchester, on holiday
Steven's post has been shared more than 800 times online, with users split between hailing the email a 'genius idea' and slamming him for not supporting the teachers.
The school has not responded to the fines he 'issued' but an official did tell him to remove the post from Facebook for breaching data protection rules.
Blasting the secondary for its 'double standards', Steven raged: 'It's hypocritical.
'It's acceptable to not be in school when they don't want to be in school but it's not when I make a genuine mistake on my holiday.
'The school wanted to see it as black and white when they fined me so I thought I'd give it back to them the same way. I hope they'll have a bit of a laugh with me but I don't know.
'I thought I'd give them a bit of karma and send this email. It entertained me last night. I was laughing as I wrote it.
'Obviously I don't expect them to pay me any money in the near future but it might make them think I've got a point and realise they could have been more amicable and had more sympathy with me.
'Teachers are jumping on it and giving me abuse, thinking I'm falling out with them. I've not got an issue with why teachers are striking but it's about double standards.'
The email includes a made-up exchange between Steven and Alfie where they discuss why the young teen hadn't been to school.
