I'm going to be a bit of a devil's advocate on this one. I think there is a huge piece of this story missing .. we don't know what the father did or didn't do to uphold the court order, or to try and get his daughter to school.. Could be he completely ignored it. NO, it's not his fault that his daughter left school day after day, but if it were me, I would have been up that school's butt, knowing MY rights were on the line because some judge had already put in place such an order. You have to CYA (Cover Your A**) in matters like this, I learned.
When Youngest was refusing to go to school, I was advised that I should call each and every day and tell them she was refusing to attend, to cover my butt. It was made very clear to me that as lon gas she was a minor, I could be held accountable for her truancy. I did whatever I had to do to cover my butt. When she begain skipping, she was put on CHINS and it became a court issue between the school and the courts.
My point is, no we cannot physically control what our children do, but, we can take every step possible to be sure the school KNOWS we are doing everything humanly possible. I made sure the school knew I was trying to get Youngest there, and I made sure the judge knew, when we ended up in court, that I had treid day after day to get her to go, and she refused. The last time we were there, there was a woman who'd been thrown in jail for this same thing... an extreme case of the other end of the spectrum, she could have cared less whether or not her daughter was in school and gave her no consequences, she just gave up. Becuase I made it clear I had bent over backwards to do whatever I had to do? The judge didn't blink an eye at me.
I'm just saying, as usual, the media doesn't give us the complete picture here. Something is missing. This didn't come out of the blue, the father had already been ordered to ensure his daughter graduated... why? I can't help but wonder what the father did or didn't do. Again, not saying he can control his daughter, but if I'd been him and there was already a court order in place telling me to be sure my kid graduated? I'd be darn sure to be documenting every effort I had made to prove I had complied with the spirit of the order.