School safety, security, and violence prevention resource

In the United Kingdom, more than 1,000 students are being suspended from school every single day.  The reasons for these suspensions vary from sexual misconduct to attacking teachers to assaulting fellow students.  These things are actually enough to warrant expulsion instead of a mere suspension.  So how come the students are merely being suspended?  According to some sectors, the reason lies in the fact that schools are trying to avoid high expulsion rates.  The Telegraph ran this story recently:

Schoolchildren in England were temporarily barred 207,240 times in just 12 months for sexual misconduct, attacking teachers, assaulting fellow pupils and issuing violent threats.

Guidance issued to schools says the offences can be met with a permanent exclusion – even for a “one off” incident.

The disclosure – in a Conservative analysis of official data – fuelled claims schools were being forced to keep serious troublemakers in the classroom under Government pressure to reduce expulsion rates.
Under current rules, local councils can impose financial penalties on schools permanently excluding pupils.

In recent years, the number of pupils expelled from school has fallen, while the suspension rate has increased by a third.

This kind of news saddens and infuriates me at the same time.  It is actually a classic example of institutions trying to cope with the financial problems that they are facing.  Due to a policy that has good intentions backing it up, schools are being forced to keep students who are potentially dangerous to other students and teachers in the premises.

Thinking more about the policy that local councils can impose financial penalties on schools which expel students, I am now at a loss as to the reason behind the penalty.  I know that in the paragraph above, I mentioned that there was probably a good intention behind the rationale but for the life of me, I cannot come up with one.  Perhaps it is a fail safe feature that can prevent unnecessary expulsions?  But what about situations wherein students NEED to be expelled?

I am unsure as to whether this kind of thing is happening in the United States.  I certainly hope that it is NOT happening.  We already have enough problems about keeping our children safe, there is no need to add to the threat by keeping unsafe students in school.  The big question is this: what to do with the students who get expelled?

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