'He's owed a huge apology', says mother of expelled boy with Asperger's

The boy was expelled in 2013 after he was involved in a scuffle with a teacher over a skateboard. Photo / Bradley Ambrose

The mother of a boy with Asperger's who won a lengthy court battle with an Auckland college that expelled him nearly two years ago says her traumatised son is owed an apology by the school.

A near 18-month judicial process came to a close last week when the Court of Appeal dismissed an application by Green Bay High School to overturn an order to quash the original expulsion.

The mother of Student "A", who cannot be identified, said the battle had taken a huge toll on her now 15-year-old son.

The boy was expelled in July 2013 after he was involved in a scuffle with a teacher over a skateboard.

"He's owed a huge apology," she told the Herald on Sunday.

"It's hurt him and troubled him to such a degree he doesn't even want to process it."

She hoped the judgement would significantly impact the way schools dealt with students with special needs.

"This is now case law that says all principals and all boards of trustees have an obligation to consider very seriously all the things at their disposal before suspending, excluding and expelling children," she said.

She hoped her son would one day learn the case was pivotal in the way schools handled children with special needs.

"I didn't just do it for my son. I stood up for others who were struggling with special needs students at schools who were keeping them out of class or putting them in the naughty room for hours at a time."

The drawn-out legal process had come at a cost with her son shifting north and enrolling in an alternative school where his school work had suffered.

He was still hoping to gain NCEA qualifications in core subjects to pursue an apprenticeship course.

At this stage there were no plans for him to return to the west Auckland college.

Green Bay High School board of trustees chairman Norm Wallace issued a statement to the Herald on Sunday on Friday saying the board's intention to appeal the original court decision was not to keep students with special needs out of the school.

Its intention was to seek clarity around procedural issues when schools were dealing with challenging situations involving health and safety.

Since "Student A" was now being educated outside the mainstream school system the court found there was no longer a live issue for it to rule on, he said.

Wallace said the school prioritised the needs of all students including those with special needs and boasted one of the lowest exclusion rates in the country.