Quashing of gun charge schoolboy’s expulsion upheld

A GRAMMAR school in Northern Ireland has lost a High Court challenge after a pupil it had expelled for allegedly trying to buy a sub-machine gun and ammunition was allowed back.

Its board of governors issued proceedings following an appeals tribunal’s finding that permanent exclusion had been a dis- proportionate step against a boy aged 14 at the time.

Neither the school nor the pupil can be identified.

He was arrested at a retail park in Coleraine in April following a police operation.

The teenager has been charged with attempting to purchase a sub-machine gun and 100 rounds of ammunition with intent to endanger life, and is on bail. The decision to expel him from school was subsequently overturned on appeal, resulting in his return to the classroom in September.

Lawyers representing the board of governors were seeking to judicially review the outcome of the tribunal. They argued that the appeal body erred in law by disregarding the alleged incident which led to the pupil’s arrest.

Counsel for the tribunal, Paul McLaughlin, countered by insisting it should have been ignored in the disciplinary process because the police investigation hadn’t finished.

“Expulsion, leaving that matter out of account, was a disproportionate response,” he argued.

A barrister representing the boy described him as a “dedicated, ambitious young man” in a critical GCSE year of study.

She told the court he has complied with all bail conditions and is being monitored to ensure he cannot leave school grounds during break and lunch.

Ruling on the application for judicial review, Mr Justice McCloskey acknowledged the board of governors faced complex legal duties in stressing and pressing conditions.

But he identified flaws in how the process was handled after receiving information from police.

“In short, the board did not perform the necessary duty of inquiry to the requisite extent,” the judge held.

Dismissing the governors’ challenge, he said: “More was required of the board of governors in response to the information prior to reaching an expulsion decision.

“That is what the tribunal was seeking to convey, in my judgment, in its use of the language of a disproportionate response.”