Punishment was too severe
published: Saturday | May 3, 2003
THE EDITOR, Sir:
I TAKE serious issue with Holy Childhood High School's recent decision to expel over seventeen of its female students for allegedly engaging in inappropriately sexually charged acts on public transportation.
While I unreservedly denounce such a loathsome act on the part of these young female students, I query whether such a severe form of punishment is proportionate to the alleged acts that were committed.
What are the standards, if any, used to determine offences that are sanctioned by expulsion, rather than, say, suspension or detention? Students should be expelled if they have committed an act of a serious criminal nature and/or a seriously egregious act. Upon expulsion, such troubled students should be enrolled in an alternative educational programme, probably operated by the juvenile justice system, and not be allowed to continue in the regular school system.
