This Kid Cried Himself To Sleep for 3 Days After Being Denied Permission To Skip School To Pursue Acting

DailyMail- A heartbroken nine-year-old actor claims his school refused to give him two days off to film his first big TV role.

Oliver McGonigle was set to star in a high profile advert for a pharmaceutical company this week until his headteacher allegedly pulled the plug.

His mother Nicole McGonigle, 41, claims Oliver's school, Holy Family Catholic Primary School in Blackpool, refused to grant him the time off despite his strong academic record.  

However, his school and Blackpool Council have both said no performing arts licence application had been received, meaning they are unable to allow the young actor out of school.

Nicole said Oliver was 'crushed' by the school's decision. She is now looking for alternative primary schools for her son. 

'This was going to be his first TV role and he's heartbroken,' she said. 'He's cried himself to sleep for the past three days and he's been very down.


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Did I miss something? Have I really been out of school soooo long that the rules have changed this much? Since when did you have to convince anyone other than your parents to get a day off school? Back in the glory years (when 9 year old's weren't sobbing into their cereal over the inability to appear in pharmaceutical ads), it wasn't some bullshit attendance record that kept you from cutting class. It was the fact that said school might call your parents and you'd have to deal with them nagging you everyday for the rest of the semester. I feel like I'm in some sort of twilight zone where the administration of elementary schools actually matters. Back in my day no mother would ever be able to complain that her child wasn't allowed to skip school to become an actor in a crappy commercial, because she - and she alone - was the one handing out the permission slips.

In fact, I'm not so sure that they still don't. I'm beginning to think that Nicole is in cahoots with the school to deny this kid his dream because she doesn't think he can achieve it, but she doesn't want to be viewed as the bad mother that she undoubtedly is. Seriously, even if this isn't some conspiracy against an overly sensitive 9 year old and his big screen aspirations, this mom sucks at motherhood simply because she couldn't even rant and rave an excused absence out of her son's stick-in-the-mud  Catholic cult. Never mind the fact that any child actor worth  his salts should be ready to drop out of organization education at the drop of a hat, because with pushovers as parents he really had no chance of hitting it big anyway.