Ed Balls, who is in charge of education in England.Tony Blair was almost expelled from school (Fettes) for persistent rule-breaking.
The world might have been a better place if he had been expelled.
Two recent court cases illustrate what is going wrong with UK schools.
1. A teenage pupil arrived late for a lesson.
He refused to sit down.
He walked around the classroom, sniggering and telling racist jokes.
He ignored several requests to start work.
He refused to leave the classroom when asked.
The 62 year-old teacher seized the boy by his belt and sweatshirt and removed him from the classroom.
The teacher was suspended.
The police were called.
Magistrates convicted the teacher of assault. (Facing the sack: Teacher fined £1500 for hauling disruptive pupil from lesson ... )
Should the authorities, responsible for this injustice, be sacked?
2. A classroom assistant asked a boy to take off his jacket and put away his phone.
The pupil threatened to stab him.
The classroom assistant removed the boy from the class.
The boy started kicking the classroom assistant.
The classroom assistant swept his feet from under him and lowered him to the ground.
The classroom assistant was charged with assault.
He was ordered by social services to leave his wife and teenage daughters and move out of his home.
Magistrates cleared him.
Kids who behave very badly in schools should be booted out permanently.
And teachers faced with disruptive kids should have the support of the authorities.
On 27 October 2009, Jenni Russell, in The Guardian wrote about how the UK authorities are teaching our children that aggression can pay.
According to Jenni Russell, teachers "have the responsibility for what goes on in classrooms, but it's disruptive pupils who have the power...
" Classrooms are becoming more difficult to manage because the policy of inclusion means that children with emotional, mental or physical difficulties are being put into mainstream schools without the extra support they need to cope...
"A survey by the NUT found that 60% of teachers had to deal every week with pupils swearing at them or refusing to do any work.
"A poll by the Teachers' Support Network found that a fifth were sworn at every day, two-fifths had been assaulted, and almost half had been threatened with violence. In total almost 18,000 teachers are assaulted by schoolchildren every year...
"Now we let belligerent, disruptive 15-year-olds claim that being touched or moved by an adult is in itself an assault.
"This inversion of power is indefensible. It serves no one; not the children who cannot learn in chaotic classes, or the teachers hamstrung by our anxieties.
"It is, ironically, a deep disservice to the disruptive pupils themselves, who discover that aggression can pay, while learning none of the skills that will make them desirable to society when they emerge into it: consideration, self-control, and diligence."
Ed Balls serves in the UK Cabinet as Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families.
He should be sacked.
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Riot officers called as 200 pupils brawl outside school News
Riot cops at school - The Star
High school pupils drunken rampage at Calderglen Country park ...
Pupils 'ran riot' on school bus
Four held after riot at Calderside Academy - Hamilton Advertiser
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