NSW: Most of 6500 suspended students 'learnt their lesson'

AAP General News (Australia)
04-26-2009
NSW: Most of 6500 suspended students 'learnt their lesson'

SYDNEY, April 26 AAP - Most of the 6,500 NSW students suspended for serious incidents
of violence last year mended their ways on their return, NSW Education Minister Verity
Firth says.

Some 6,500 students were suspended in 2008 for violent behaviour - up 20 per cent since
2005 - News Limited reported on Sunday.

Teachers handed out 400 suspensions to pupils caught carrying weapons last year, it said.

Ms Firth said close to three quarters of the 1.4 per cent of children given a long
suspension had learnt their lesson.

"That is they have been suspended only once that year," she told Macquarie Radio.

"They got their long suspension.

"They were never suspended again.

"So what we do is we remove these students from the school situation. We support these
students with behavioural issues.

"We have a record number of specialist behaviour facilities and programs."

The NSW Parents and Citizens (P&C) Association said it was not alarmed by the high
number of school students suspended for serious incidents of violence.

NSW P&C president Dianne Giblin said figures showed the schools' system of suspension
was working.

"Whilst there is an increase in numbers, our numbers are still quite low for those
particular behaviours," she told ABC Radio.

"We see this as a result of the ability to suspend and the regulations that say that
any young person caught with a weapon is immediately suspended, and that will inflate
the numbers."

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KEYWORD: SUSPENSION WRAP

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