Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

3,000 pupils excluded from school for 'sexual misconduct'

 

Emma Bamford
Tuesday 02 April 2013 10:21 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

More than 3,000 children – including hundreds aged under 11 – are being excluded from school for sexual misconduct every year, it emerged last night.

According to Department for Education figures, in 2010/11 3,030 children were excluded. Of those, 200 were primary school children: 10 were expelled and 190 suspended. In 2009/10, the exclusions figure was 3,300 for offences including sexual bullying, harassment or assault, lewd behaviour and writing sexual graffiti.

The figures, obtained by the Daily Mail, came a day after The Independent published a first-hand account by a mother, Lizi Patch, on how her 11-year-old son told her his childhood was over after he felt pressured by school peers into watching a pornographic film online that he couldn’t “unsee”.

Campaigners have been raising concerns with children being increasingly exposed to a highly sexualised society.

Lib Dem peer Baroness Benjamin has said girls are becoming increasingly sexualised and boys are treating them as little more than ‘sexual objects’ and the children’s presenter Floella Benjamin has said young people are being led on a ‘seemingly unstoppable march into a moral wasteland’ by online porn.

A survey by the NSPCC last year found that 30 per cent of secondary school teachers and 11 per cent of primary teachers were aware of incidents of ‘sexually coercive’ behaviour by pupils towards classmates over the past year.

And a Channel 4 News investigation in December revealed that teenagers as young as 13 are routinely ‘sexting’ naked pictures of themselves.

Claire Perry, the Prime Minister’s adviser on childhood, told the Daily Mail: “These statistics on expulsions confirm the uneasy sense that many parents have, that our children are operating in an increasingly sexualised culture which is spilling over into the classroom.”

A Department for Education spokesman said: ‘Exclusions for sexual misconduct are extremely rare and are decreasing, with these statistics representing less than 0.05 per cent of pupils across the country.

‘Nevertheless we know headteachers take this issue extremely seriously.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in