MEDIA RELEASE
18 July 2013
Education Ministry Forcing Schools to Take Unruly Students
Family First NZ says that the Paeroa Central Primary School experience of being pressured to keep a violent pupil in the school despite the danger that the pupil would place other children in is just the tip
of the iceberg as schools are pressured by the Ministry of Education and so-called ‘experts’ to ignore bad behaviour.
Requests made by Family First NZ to the Minister of Education under the Official Information Act reveals that there were 163 incidences between 2003 and 2012 where a school was forced by the Ministry to re-enroll a student
who the school had previously excluded or expelled.
“Significantly, schools - including primary schools - were being forced to re-enroll students who had been expelled
because of assaulting other students, assaulting staff, drug use, and continual obedience,” says Bob McCoskrie, National
Director of Family First NZ.
The information also reveals that the Ministry ordered schools to enroll over 600 students between 2003 and 2012 who had
previously been thrown out of other schools, with physical assaults on staff and pupils being one of the main reasons
for their exclusion from their previous school.”
“Schools are having no choice but to accept students who should not be in mainstream education at the moment. Schools
are also being forced to turn a ‘blind eye’ to increasingly unacceptable behaviour and violence because of a drive by
the Ministry of Education and so-called experts to reduce the numbers of suspensions and expulsions.”
“It seems ironic that as we are saying no to violence within families and our community, schools are tolerating an
unacceptable level of violence, sexual and offensive behaviour and intimidation, and that the rights of children and
teachers to be safe are being sacrificed in favour of the rights of students who place other children at risk.”
“The Ministry of Education is burying both its head and the extent of the problem in the sand, and both staff and
children are being put at risk by the unacceptable behaviour of a minority who know that the consequences of their
behaviour are negligible,” says Mr McCoskrie.
“The incident at Paeroa Central Primary School which gained nationwide attention is just the tip of the iceberg.”
ENDS