Zizi Sparks: School exclusions warranted, but more could be done to prevent them

In the Bay of Plenty there are currently 19 children without a school to go to. Photo / Getty

OPINION

Right now, there are 19 children in the Bay of Plenty who don't have a school to go to but need one.

But before you start to feel sorry for them, the Ministry of Education figures reported last week show six of those children were kicked out for physically assaulting other students and five were excluded for continual disobedience. For eight, the reason was not revealed.

Their behaviour was so bad they were kicked out of school. Exclusions are a last resort, principals say, and in my view they are needed to send a message.

But one Bay of Plenty principal has called for an end to school exclusions.

Exclusion is for students aged 16 or younger and requires the student to be enrolled at another school.

Suzanne Billington, Western Bay of Plenty Principals' Association president and Tauriko School principal, said she was eager to see an end to school exclusions because the system had "the appropriate options and support to keep young people in education and get them the support they need".

She said ideally the Ministry of Education would provide the appropriate support for "any student who finds it challenging to engage in learning at their local school".

But she and other principals say there is a lack of resourcing to provide this support.

Once you leave school you can be charged and even imprisoned for physically assaulting someone. So it needs to be taken seriously at a school level so that children grow up and know and learn about how to conduct themselves and behave.

But blaming a child's actions, especially ones like this, entirely on the child would be naive.

Principals say the increase in family harm, drugs, housing and poverty is being reflected in the classroom.

So what is the problem? You may say it is the students, for being so disruptive that their school boards of trustees had no other option. You may say it is the school for not getting them the help they need. It may be caregivers and the potentially stressful living situation that child is in.

But what it appears to come down to is resourcing.

If students are misbehaving, maybe it's a sign of personal problems or trouble at home. It is up to parents and teachers to ask why a student might act in the way they do and address the cause rather than excluding them.

Perhaps if students could get the help they needed for whatever issues are behind their behaviour, they would not reach the stage where exclusion was the only option.