Casteel is one of five people charged last December by Greene County prosecutors for failing to make their children consistently attend school. The jury recommended a seven-day sentence in the Greene County jail for the misdemeanor, which carries a maximum punishment of 15 days in jail and/or a fine up to $300. Associate Circuit Judge Mark Fitzsimmons plans to sentence Casteel on June 2.

Casteel’s son was enrolled in the sixth grade at Reed Middle School in the 2006-07 school year but only was in school about half the time. Reed and school district attendance officers, as well as community services agencies, say they spent many hours and visits trying to get the son to be in school.

Casteel testified that her son, who is mentally retarded, didn’t like school and often fought her efforts to make him go. She said he would throw things, leave their home through his bedroom window, and even once tried to jump out of her moving car as she took him to school. Casteel said her son said other Reed students teased him and tried to start fights with him. She also said, part of the time, her son lived with her ex-husband in Buffalo.

A district attendance advisor testified she visited Casteel’s home about 25 times, and sometimes took the boy to school with her. The advisor also said Casteel’s other children also had attendance problems, and one time she caught Casteel lying about whether the children were home. A Reed attendance secretary said she repeatedly told Casteel to call school if her son wasn’t coming, but Casteel rarely called.

The cases of the other four people charged with the same crime as Casteel in December have not gone to trial. Prosecutors chose to defer for two years the prosecution of Rod Casteel, Kathleen Casteel’s ex-husband. The cases of Debbie and John Strahl of Springfield are pending. Online court records show Greene County sheriff’s deputies have been unable to find Miccie Szilveszter of Springfield to serve her with a warrant on her charge.