frivolous lawsuit of the day...............dad wants refund for flunking kids........

[jason]

Father wants refund on Brighton Grammar school fees

By Fiona Hudson

March 16, 2008 12:00am
Article from: Sunday Herald Sun

Send this article: Print Email

* Twins humiliated by 'disastrous' exam results
* Father wants up to $400K in fees be refunded
* Elite school says it gave special assistance to boys

A FATHER whose twin sons flunked their final exams is demanding an elite private school repay up to $400,000 in fees.

Victorian Steven Weybury, unhappy with his sons' VCE results, has challenged Brighton Grammar to refund the money spent educating his twins from kindergarten to year 12.

He has alleged his boys were humiliated by their VCE results.

Mr Weybury - a partner in a city law firm - claims he warned the school that his boys were headed for academic disaster in their final year and attempted to remove them at the end of year 11.

But school bosses persuaded him to let the boys stay on and assured him that they could cope emotionally and academically, he claims.

"The boys did not successfully complete year 12 in any respect," court documents allege.

"The boys obtained placements in courses of a type which did not require year 12 attendance."

Mr Weybury has sought a refund of fees paid for the boys between 1994 and 2007, as well as damages and legal costs.

"The plaintiff paid fees to (the school) for a total of 28 years in an amount of the region of $400,000," court documents allege.

"The lack of achievement of the boys in all areas considered important . . . confirms that the payment of fees were (sic) excessive and unnecessary."

Mr Weybury has alleged his sons suffered psychological and emotional harm arising during their VCE year.

In a defence filed with the court, lawyers for Brighton Grammar said the school had provided special assistance to the boys throughout their schooling.

The boys were also given extra language and maths classes and speech therapy in primary school years, according to the school.

The school also claimed in its defence that each boy completed VCE and each was offered and accepted a place in a tertiary course of his choice.


LINK (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23382416-2,00.html)

[mustang04]

thats ridiculous.... maybe i should demand refunds for not having the "education" to ace the ACT which completely changed my future....





:D

[I_DONT_CARE]

OBVIOUSLY SOME PEOPLE HAVE MORE MONEY THAN SENSE. :rolleyes:

[BobcatBenny]

I don't know if this if frivilous. If you enroll your kid in a school that is claiming a top notch education and they do not deliver, the school in my opinion does bear some responsibility.

That is why private schools supposedly have selective enrollment standards. If the boys were idiots, it was the school's responsibility to not accept them. Once the school took them in and took the money, and continued to accept money year after year, they took responsibility for their education.

The school failed.

Now this never would fly in the public arena, but this was a private venture that went bad.

The school should have settled instead of letting this go to trial.

[LH Panther Mom]

Originally posted by BobcatBenny
I don't know if this if frivilous. If you enroll your kid in a school that is claiming a top notch education and they do not deliver, the school in my opinion does bear some responsibility.

That is why private schools supposedly have selective enrollment standards. If the boys were idiots, it was the school's responsibility to not accept them. Once the school took them in and took the money, and continued to accept money year after year, they took responsibility for their education.

The school failed.

Now this never would fly in the public arena, but this was a private venture that went bad.

The school should have settled instead of letting this go to trial.
Why did it take the father until 11th grade to determine that his kids were having academic problems? :thinking:

[jason]

Originally posted by BobcatBenny
I don't know if this if frivilous. If you enroll your kid in a school that is claiming a top notch education and they do not deliver, the school in my opinion does bear some responsibility.

That is why private schools supposedly have selective enrollment standards. If the boys were idiots, it was the school's responsibility to not accept them. Once the school took them in and took the money, and continued to accept money year after year, they took responsibility for their education.

The school failed.

Now this never would fly in the public arena, but this was a private venture that went bad.

The school should have settled instead of letting this go to trial.

i completely disagree - when the school had to set up special programs the dad should have known his kids were not as smart as he wanted them to be...

like i_dont_care said, some people have more money than sense...

[BobcatBenny]

Originally posted by LH Panther Mom
Why did it take the father until 11th grade to determine that his kids were having academic problems? :thinking:
Well, that is a good question. But again, he hired professional private educators and placed them in trust over his kids. Probably a bad decision, but not every decision I have ever made for my kids was a good one either.

If I were guessing, he realized they were in trouble when he found out their SAT or ACT scores.

My sneaking suspicion is that this was a snooty private school that catered to rich people. Had what appeared to be selective enrollment standards, but in reality just to rich people. Touted all sorts of claims of educational excellence to dupe people into forking over the big enrollment dollars, educated the easiest kids to teach, then ignored or just gave passing grades to those that were a challenge.

I attended both private and public schools. I found that the private school was able to meet my needs better in elementary and junior high because I was easily distracted and the nuns cared enough to keep me focused. They cared about me. . . . And my parents paid for that service.

Thus by the time I ended up in public school, I had a strong educational foundation and succeeded even though I did not get any individual attention. Which I really required. As my wife will readily point out, I am half retarded (or whatever the correct PC term is these days).

This guy forked out nearly half a million for that benefit, which it appears he did not get. It is or was a private venture and the service provider failed him.

I'm not saying that he is entirely in an unshakable moral position, but it may be a good thing that he is shaking up that organization, so that those that follow will not suffer the same treatment. A service/product was offered, agreed to, paid for and apparently not delivered.

[pirate4state]

Originally posted by BobcatBenny
Probably a bad decision, but not every decision I have ever made for my kids was a good one either.

I think his first bad decision was to even have kids. :doh:

[BobcatBenny]

Originally posted by pirate4state
I think his first bad decision was to even have kids. :doh:
Yeah, all women should have their tubes tied and prove they are smart enough, financially secure enough, vaccinated, married and all around perfect people before being allowed to untie those tubes. :D

[Ranger Mom]

I guess the guys would need to tie "theirs" in a knot too, until they could prove the same things!!

How long before the human race dies out if that was a determining factor??:eek: :eek:

[BobcatBenny]

Originally posted by Ranger Mom
I guess the guys would need to tie "theirs" in a knot too, until they could prove the same things!!

How long before the human race dies out if that was a determining factor??:eek: :eek:
No, guys wouldn't ever be allowed to have kids. :D

Just ask my wife.