I think it is a bit rich to lecture to school principals, given the sort of news in the paper recently.
Two girls tried to poison/kill another girl, put poison in her drink bottle or some such thing.
The school expelled one of those girls. But the Education Department overturned the school decision, saying that expulsion should be a 'last resort'.
If trying to kill another student does not qualify for the 'last resort' then I am very much afraid school prins have their hands tied.
I worked in a school for many years & it is getting tougher. You can be in trouble now if you separate a child ie sit them at a table by themself. I did that a few times when someone was being totally obnoxious & distracting to other kids, pushing their work off tables or whatever. But you're not supposed to do it now.
You really can't expel students these days without a great deal of effort & even then, that would trash the school prin's name with the dept.
I've known of (not in my school but a nearby one) primary school students who punched holes in walls, destroyed a toilet, threatened to slit another child's throat, routinely threw stones at passing cars at lunchtime, bashed other children in the playground every day, tried to stab the lollipop lady with one of her flags. I could go on.
Quite often what happens is it is the child being threatened who is brought inside (for protection) or escorted to a car after school. But to me this is the wrong way around. It's the thug student who should be inside missing out on lunch play, whose parents should be called to collect him.
I have to tell you though that some of the parents of such children are not much better & teachers can be afraid of confrontation.
But if politicians want schools to deal better with bullying, they need to give prins some teeth.
