The Ministry of Education has released the numbers of pupils who were stood down, suspended, excluded or expelled from New Zealand state and state-integrated schools for incidents of this nature last year.
Otago schools reported 602 pupils had been stood down, 88 suspended, 35 excluded and fewer than five pupils expelled in 2015.
The vast majority of stand-downs were for continual disobedience and physical assault on other pupils.
Some of the stand-downs were for incidents involving arson, weapons, sexual misconduct, and physical assaults on other pupils and staff.
The majority of suspensions and exclusions were for continual disobedience, physical assaults on staff and other pupils, and drugs (including substance abuse), but the disciplinary measures were also used for pupils in cases of sexual misconduct.
Because there were fewer than five pupils expelled in Otago in 2015, the reasons for the expulsions were withheld by the ministry under section 9(2)(a) of the Official Information Act so the pupils involved could not be identified.
Despite the alarming nature of these incidents, ministry figures show they are declining in Otago.
Nationally, schools reported 14,198 stand-downs, 2618 suspensions and 883 exclusions — the lowest numbers recorded since 2000.
But expulsions are on the rise again, with 156 recorded in 2015 — the highest since 2012.
A stand-down is when a pupil is removed from a school for up to five school days in a term, or 10 days in a school year.
The pupil automatically returns to school following the stand-down.
The disciplinary action provides an opportunity to reduce tension and reflect on the action which led to the stand-down.
A suspension is the formal removal of a pupil from a school until a decision regarding their behaviour is made by the school’s board of trustees.
The decision could be to lift the suspension (with or without conditions), extend the suspension, or terminate the pupil’s enrolment at the school.
This termination of enrolment is known as an exclusion for pupils under 16, and an expulsion for pupils aged 16 and over.
Ministry of Education Evidence, Data and Knowledge deputy secretary Craig Jones said it was important to note, stand-downs, suspensions, exclusions and expulsions were not measures of pupil behaviour, so much as they were measures of schools’ reactions to behaviours.
"What one school may suspend for, another may not. The number of these events should not therefore be used as a proxy measure for total student behaviour."
Anderson’s Bay School principal Hamish McDonald said stand-downs, suspensions and exclusions were taken very seriously and were not issued lightly by primary schools.
"Underlying decisions to follow through with a consequence such as these, are done so with careful consideration and understanding of the unique situation and the student, or students, it involves.
"Such decisions are often made when safety of that child, other children, or adults may be compromised, following a process of due consideration.
"Underpinning the approaches that schools take to work with students expressing issues highlighted in this story, is the desire to achieve the best outcome for our students in ways that aim to resolve not just the outcome, but attempting to identify and work with the reasons that such behaviours may occur."
Otago Secondary Principals’ Association secretary Gordon Wilson was delighted with the improving trend, and said the Otago statistics continued to be among the lowest in New Zealand.
"There has been a considerable decrease in these issues from about five years ago.
"It would be good if we could get to a place where we don’t have these situations, but that’s probably unrealistic. We probably will always have that.
"They are very isolated incidents when you compare the numbers with the total student population in schools.
"Certainly, the strategies that schools are putting in place to help young people develop better relationships with each other, are working."
He said all pupils excluded from Dunedin secondary schools in 2015, went on to find alternative forms of education (including schools), and some had been extremely successful in their new environment.
