Judge says problem children need school

The principal Youth Court judge, Andrew Becroft, says separate schools for children with severe behaviour problems would be "warehouses" for violence.

Judge Becroft, an advocate of keeping boys at school to avert criminal behaviour later, said mainstream schools were best for such children.

He was responding to the head of the Secondary Schools Principals Association, Graham Young, who has called for a debate on whether mainstream schools should have to take children with serious behaviour problems.

Judge Becroft said it could be dangerous to take them out of mainstream schools.

"I think we would have to be very careful that we didn't warehouse violence, aggression, truancy in behaviourally disordered teenage boys by putting them all in the one location, because we know that is entirely counterproductive."

He had considerable sympathy for the plight of teachers facing aggressive students, and agreed those students needed specialist care such as psychologists. However, about 80 per cent of the cases before the Youth Court were children who were not at school.

Children with behaviour problems were "potentially human timebombs" and needed to stay in school.

"The king-hit for reducing offending among teenagers is keeping them at school or a meaningful alternative ... so there is a challenge for the Government to consider whether schools are a location where this sort of help can be provided that it may be unfair to ask teachers to provide."

Judge Becroft was backed by leading child and adolescent psychologist Professor John Werry.

"The most powerful influence over teenage kids is who they hang out with. If one wants to do something with those kids, the worst thing they can do is put them together where they can teach each other."

About 10 per cent of the school population had severe behaviour disorders, including 5 per cent with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and 5 per cent with "conduct disorder" - a severe behavioural problem.

"The problem is at the moment the ministry is so PC that, while they have special funding streams for children who are mentally retarded or physically disabled, they won't recognise we can pick kids in preschool who are destined for problems throughout their teen years ... they have to recognise this chronic disability called conduct disorder."

Mr Young said he hoped the debate would give schools a clear message about what the community expected from them. It would cost his school $200,000 to set up a separate unit for about five or six children with behaviour problems, plus the cost of staff.

"So if, at the end of the debate, the community said school is the place for them, then resource it, and I'm not talking about $13 an hour for a teacher aide three hours a week."

Education Minister Steve Maharey said behaviour in schools was a priority area for the next Budget.