EXCLUSION FROM SCHOOL

Exclusion from school is numerically a small problem but a series of aggressive acts by a seriously disturbed child who is usually poorly endowed intellectually, backward educationally, socially deprived and with a family background characterised by disruption, marital disharmony, and sociopathy and delinquency on the part of the parents.

Abstract

SUMMARY (1) Exclusion from school is numerically a small problem. Forty‐one children excluded from Edinburgh schools are described. (2) Exclusion from school occurred more often in secondary schools and much more often in boys. While commoner when opportunities for outdoor play are reduced in the winter months and commonest at mid‐term, it is by no means the result of an arbitrary decision by a teacher, but the culmination of a series of aggressive acts by a seriously disturbed child who is usually poorly endowed intellectually, backward educationally, socially deprived and with a family background characterised by disruption, marital disharmony, and sociopathy and delinquency on the part of the parents. A high proportion of excluded children were already attending special schools, (3) One to three years later only 4 out of 25 children still at school were living at home and attending ordinary schools; 19 were in psychiatric hospitals, residential schools or children's homes.