Pupils excluded from school for carrying knives

BRINGING knives and alcohol into school, kicking and punching a head teacher and throwing a chair at a member of staff.

These are just some of the reasons pupils in Merthyr Tydfil were excluded from primary and secondary schools in the county borough last year.

As the new school year starts this week, a Freedom of Information request to the council has revealed that there were 447 exclusions in Merthyr Tydfil’s schools during the last academic year.

The data also shows there have been four occasions when pupils were excluded for incidents with knives.

Two of these involved bringing knives into school (with one intending to use it against others) and two involved stealing a kitchen knife from the school and endangering the lives of other pupils on the school bus.

Pupils have also been excluded for physically assaulting other pupils and staff, including punches to the face, kicks to the stomach and even an incident of strangling.

The incident involving the head teacher saw the pupil repeatedly kick and punch them and drag them to the ground by the hair.

They’ve also been excluded for using foul or abusive language against staff and other pupils, and even the use of racist language against another pupil.

There have also been incidents where pupils have behaved inappropriately in a sexual nature, deliberately set off the fire alarm and damaged school property.

One pupil was excluded for biting another pupil and others for firing BB guns on school grounds

There are also several examples of pupils being excluded for not following school rules, truancy, taking illegal substances, smoking or vaping on the school premises.

Data from Rhondda Cynon Taf shows that there were 755 fixed-term exclusions in the 2017/2018 autumn term and 711 in the spring term.

There were seven permanent exclusions in the autumn term and none in the spring term, meaning there were 1,477 days lost in the autumn and 1,335.5 days lost in the spring.

Data for the 2017/2018 summer term has yet to be verified by the council and they were unable to provide any further breakdown.