Macleans College expulsion: School boards of trustees can ask for help with disciplinary decisions, Ombudsman says

Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier, whose office has the job of investigating public sector agencies such as state schools. Photo / File

The Chief Ombudsman wants school boards to ask his office for advice if they're unclear on how to discipline a student - instead of taking the "nuclear option" of expulsion or exclusion and having to backtrack later.

The Herald reported today that the Ombudsman had told a prestigious Auckland school to apologise because it had made the wrong call by expelling a student two years ago.

The case has divided readers, with some supporting the student and others questioning how schools can enforce standards if they can be overruled in disciplinary matters.

Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier told the Herald his finding - further details of which his office has now published online - should serve as a message to other schools.

Each decision they made could be life-changing for that student and their whānau, he said. "It can have a profound influence on their whole destiny."

The office of the Ombudsman is independent and has power to investigate complaints about public sector agencies, including state and state-integrated schools.

Unlike a court, its findings are not enforceable but they are almost always implemented.

Boshier said his office was there to make sure the correct processes were followed and the result was proportionate to the offence.

He didn't want to comment further on the case, in which he said the school was wrong to consider the student's actions gross misconduct - preferring instead to let his finding stand.

But he elaborated on what a proportionate response might look like, giving the example of physical violence, such as punching. That could be objectively judged as dangerous and offensive - in that case he believed that would call for a high-end disciplinary response.

In the Macleans College case there had been bad language on the part of the student but no suggestion of physical violence.

Schools could still have rules - Boshier wasn't interested in weighing in on matters like detentions.

But at the level of disciplinary hearings schools were subservient to the law. A school "is not free to impose its own idiosyncratic view of the standards it insists on", he said.

"Otherwise you would have widely differing standards and responses throughout the country, and that's not civilised," he said.

"If I can't fault the way that a school board of trustees has gone about doing something, I might not personally agree with the particular decision they make but if it's not out of scope, it's up to them. I do not seek to criticise it.

"If on the other hand they've followed an impeccable process and then suddenly there's an end result where I can't see how they've got there - where they've gone for the nuclear option - I will find that that is wanting."

I would much rather the Ombudsman is there to help...than be called in after it's all too late when the damage might have been done.

Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier

Boshier empathised with boards of trustees, many of whom were parent volunteers, new to the role and trying to manage a very technical process. Discipline could be "horrendously difficult" and some parents were very demanding.

He called for them to reach out for help before, not after making a difficult decision. His office now has 160 staff, with many highly qualified investigators, some of whom had a teaching background. If a decision was urgent it could be triaged and dealt with rapidly.

"For example if a school suspends a person and says you've got a week to tell us why you should not be expelled and that person comes to us immediately, we are capable of acting in the timeframe. It's not as if you get put in a queue and get dealt with months down the track," he said.

"I would much rather the Ombudsman is there to help in a practical interventionist sense, than be called in after it's all too late when the damage might have been done."

The background: Student expelled after altercation over iPad

The board of trustees at Macleans College was told to apologise after expelling a student who told a teacher to f*** off during an argument. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Macleans College, a prestigious decile 9 state school in Bucklands Beach, expelled the 17-year-old after he told a senior teacher to "f*** off" and "don't touch my sh*t" during a heated argument over whether he should be on his iPad, which he uses as a learning aid.

Speaking to the Herald, the school's principal characterised the incident as a "verbal assault" of a manner unprecedented in his time at the school.

The school board of trustees decided his behaviour amounted to gross misconduct, and expelled him.

The student's parents lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman, who this year found the board was wrong and the boy's behaviour did not amount to gross misconduct.

He also found - and the Macleans board had already accepted after an internal review - that the disciplinary hearings process was flawed.

The Ombudsman recommended the school apologise and the principal and chairman of the board have since written a letter of apology to the boy and his family.