Second expelled boy ends school stand-off
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Your support makes all the difference.The second of two boys expelled for making death threats against a teacher will not return to his school after Surrey County Council struck a deal with his parents.
Both boys will be found places at mainstream schools. Their parents had insisted they should not be sent to referral units often called sin bins for problem pupils.
The boys, now aged 15 and 16, were expelled from Glyn Technology School in Epsom in June after making 44 abusive phone calls, including death threats, to Steve Taverner, a teacher who had disciplined them for throwing stones at a window. Their parents appealed to an independent panel that ruled the boys should return. But the teachers refused to have the boys in their lessons and they had to be taught in a separate room by a supply teacher.
The boys are now being taught at home after Estelle Morris, the Secretary of State for Education, called for them to be removed from the school. Sue Aldred, the mother of the second boy, had insisted that her son was legally entitled to return to Glyn School.
She argued he was "not a yob" but "a normal boy who has made a mistake and needs a chance". She said: "Boys that do this sort of thing should be punished in some way but I don't think a permanent exclusion is the answer."
A spokesman for Surrey County Council said: "Both sets of parents have confirmed that they now wish their children to go to alternative mainstream secondary schools ... We are trying to find them places in mainstream secondary schools, not pupil referral units."
This week the school's support staff voted to force the school to close by refusing to work rather than allow the boys to return.Gerald Imison, deputy general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, welcomed the decision to withdraw both boys. "We have stressed that the two young men had forfeited their right to an education at the school, but not their right to an education and are glad to see that this outcome will allow this to happen," he said.
"We must not forget the dramatic impact this has had on the health of Mr Taverner and hope that he will quickly be able to resume his career, knowing that he will not have to face those who threatened his life."
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