Daughter fails math test, so dad thrown in jail

Brittany Gegner (courtesy WCPO-TV)

A northern Kentucky man is in jail today – serving a 180-day sentence – because his 18-year-old daughter failed a math test and didn't get her General Equivalency Diploma, or GED, as a previous court order required.

Brittany Gegner, the daughter, says if anyone should be jailed, it should be her.

"It's like I should, if anybody should be punished for this," Brittany told WCPO-TV in Cincinnati. "I would way rather me go to jail than my dad."

Even Brian Gegner's ex-wife agrees the judge's decision is absurd.

"They probably should have punished me if they were going to punish anybody," said Brittany's mother Shana Roach. "Because she did live with me at the time, but because he had the custody, that's why he's being punished. But I don't understand the punishment altogether because she's going to school, she's been going for four months. The only thing that's holding her back is she can't pass her math test."

Butler County Juvenile Court Judge David Niehaus ordered Gegner to jail for contributing to the delinquency of a minor by not following a court order which required Gegner to be sure his daughter got her GED.

"It's ridiculously wrong," said Brittany.

"Of all the punishments they could have given him, to make him go to jail?" she asked. "I mean, probation – until I get my GED – would be reasonable, but to send him to jail? That's overboard."

The problems began when Brittany was 16 and started skipping classes at Fairfield High School and then, Butler Tech.

Though Brian Gegner had custody of her, Brittany says it was while she lived with her mother that she was truant.

"I'm about to be 19 and my dad's being punished for something I did when I was 16," she said.

Brittany has a daughter who's about 18-months-old. She says she's determined to pass the GED for her daughter – and her father.

The judge says if she passes the test, her father could get out of jail before his six-months sentence is up.

Brittany's stepmother worries the time in jail will ruin their family. She says he could lose the job he's worked for 15 years.

"I never dreamed they would put him in jail for this – for six months – it's crazy," said Stephanie Gegner, Brittany's stepmother.

"He has no control over what his adult daughter does," she said. "He just doesn't."

Court administrators say that even though Brittany is an adult now, the case remains active in their court because she was a juvenile when the problems started.