Parents lay blame on teachers

Outside the firmly locked doors of the Ridings, a group of seven girls posed for photographs under a banner saying "Support the innocent". The school may be closed, but the arguments over who is responsible for the breakdown in discipline continued.

Parents were still angry at the closure and blamed the teachers for the lack of control. One couple were considering legal action while a mother whose son was among the 600 sent home on Thursday said the teachers couldn't cope and were unruly themselves.

None of this bothered the group of seven girls who have formed an action group calling themselves "Good Kids Win", in an attempt to make the school a safer and more pleasant place. "Seventeen people have already signed our petition," said Jo Lovell, 15.

"We just want to be able to work hard and enjoy everything the school has to offer."

A written statement, scrawled in coloured ink on a piece of A4 paper, was handed out. It said that most of the pupils got on well with the staff and a lot of effort was put in outside school hours to help the pupils succeed. "We have been disgusted by many of the comments made in the media over the past few days," it read. "We think there are a lot of pupils in the school who support the staff but are too frightened to say so."

Zoe Taylor, 15, leading the group, is studying for seven GCSEs and wants to become a nurse. "If we go for an interview and say we're from the Ridings school it will pull us down," she said. "Doors will be closed before they are even opened."

For many parents, the teachers are to blame. One mother, Diane Griffiths, whose 11-year-old son David has just started at the school, said she had complained to the council and the chairman of the governors last month after he was allegedly physically abused by a member of staff.

"You hear all about the children attacking their teachers but you hear nothing about the teachers abusing the pupils," she said. "My son was assaulted by a teacher for banging his ruler on the desk and giggling with classmates.

"The teacher grabbed him and ripped his jumper, dragged him out of his seat, threw him against a desk and then threw him out of a class."

Mrs Griffiths, a single mother in her thirties, also said that she was appalled at the way the staff just threw the children on to the street with an explanatory note on Thursday.

Another disgruntled parent, Sheriden Walton, whose children, Chantel, 14, and Jamie, 15, both attend the school, said she felt that the appointment of new headmaster, Peter Clarke, would do nothing to help discipline.

"How's it going to help with these pupils?" she asked "In the end we'll just be back to square one. I can't see a way forward for the school as it is now."

When asked what she felt about sending her children to a school where other pupils were alleged to have sexually abused the staff, she replied: "It's immensely worrying. If it happens to a member of staff then it could easily happen to a child as well."

Both Mrs Griffiths and Mrs Walton feel that the break-down in discipline is mainly down to a hard core of around 12 pupils whom they believe should be expelled. "They should deal with them one at a time and get rid of the main trouble-makers," said Mrs Griffiths. "Then discipline the rest."

Later in the morning, the girl who was said to have slammed a door in the face of the computer teacher Frazer Coxon on Thursday morning made a guest appearance outside the school, to the delight of the waiting press. Vicky Crabtree, 14, stood by the gates and smiled for waiting cameramen. "I did nothing," she shrieked. "I did slam the door but Mr Coxon was nowhere near it."

As one resident from the nearby Ovenden estate said: "The whole situation has turned into a circus. You can't discipline these kids - they just love the attention too much."