Anger after police escort mother and son from school

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
A furor has broken out after a Tel Aviv elementary school called in police to remove an 11-year-old boy who came to school despite having been suspended for two days for misbehavior, reports www.mynet.co.il. The boy's family is now considering suing the school, with a lawyer saying the child and his mother were treated "like dangerous criminals." According to the report, the boy, a student at the Tel Hai elementary school, was recently suspended for two days for throwing erasers. But the following day he went to school as usual, and his mother was called to go there and take him home. When she arrived at the school gate, the security guard refused to allow her in, and soon afterwards a policeman arrived, who escorted her in and then escorted her and the boy out. The mother said she had not been notified of the suspension beforehand. The report said that last week, the mother's lawyer wrote to the school, to the municipal Education Department and to Mayor Ron Huldai seeking explanations for the police presence. The letter said the boy had been suspended a number of times, for no apparent educational purpose and without his parents being notified in writing as was required, and that this was a breach of his rights to education and to respect. The letter said that bringing in police to remove the boy from school, in full view of other students and teachers, was a "serious and prominent" breach of his right to dignity and was in conflict with educational values. "It is peculiar in our eyes why school management chose to treat this student and his mother like dangerous criminals who were incapable of leaving the school by themselves, without a police escort," the letter said. It added that the family was now considering legal action. An Education Ministry spokesman said the family's version was "distorted" and the boy had been suspended not just for throwing erasers but also for violence. The spokesman said the mother had begun shouting when she arrived at the school, and this was why police had been called.