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‘Snowball six’ suspended from Leeds school
Ethan Tate.
Six pupils were suspended from a Leeds high school – for throwing snowballs.
The students were ordered home for the week following a snowball fight at South Leeds Academy in Belle Isle.
School heads were thought to be examining on-site CCTV as part of a wider investigation into the incident.
Ethan Tate, 16, was one of the six suspended on Monday.
His mum, Tracy, 46, told the YEP: “I think it’s absolutely pathetic. It beggars belief.”
Between 30 and 40 pupils were said to have been involved in the snowball fight in the school grounds on Monday afternoon.
According to Ethan, an emergency assembly was called immediately after the incident and pupils who were involved were asked to hand themselves in.
He said staff told the assembly anyone who did not volunteer themselves, but who was later shown on CCTV to have been involved, could face being excluded for the rest of the year.
Ethan and five others who came forward were sent home immediately and told they were excluded for the remainder of the week.
Tracy, a mature social sciences student at Leeds University, added: “He wasn’t throwing ice balls, they didn’t contain stones or pieces of broken glass – there were no hidden projectiles.
“No-one got hurt, no property was damaged. I just think it’s a total over-reaction.
“If you put kids in the snow, what do you expect they are going to do?”
South Leeds Academy principal Colette Jones said she would not comment on the case but said school policy said students should be safe, kind and respectful.
She added: “We take the safety of our students very seriously. Behaviour that compromises student safety will be addressed in an appropriate manner.
“Any decision to exclude a student for a fixed period, because of their behaviour, is taken with thought and consideration for everyone concerned.
“We will always take action to ensure that standards of discipline keep all members of the academy community safe.”
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Weather for Leeds
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
