ELMWOOD SCHOOL.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17429, 13 April 1922, Page 7

ELMWOOD SCHOOL.

THE EXPULSION INCIDENT. HEADMASTER'S EXPLANATION. The crowded attendance at the annual meeting of householders in. the Ehnwood School last night was-prob-ably due to the interest taken in the. expulsion of a little girl from the school for theft a. few weeks ago. The incident was not mentioned until all the business had been transacted. It was introduced by the headmaster (Mr J. R. Sinclair), when lie replied to a. vote of thanks to the staff for their year's work. He said that people who had spoken to him on the subject seemed to thins lie felt depressed. As a matter of fact, he was not depressed in the least. Me had lost no sleep over the matter. He need only say that the step taken was token with, consideration, and was carried out with, decorum. Those who wrote to a local newspaper, if they had taken the trouble first to seek information, would be sorry they had written. He behoved that the newspaper referred to was 6orry it had taken the matter up Ho never had had occasion to do that kind of thing before during his career of thirty-seven years, and he had realised that the step was a very serious one. Tiie saluting of the nag had nothing to do with the expulsion. There was no connexion between the two. The child was in his office when the flag was saluted. She was brought out for only a few minutes, and was not placed in the conspicuous position stated- He took it as a vote of confidence in the committee that the subject had not been brought up at the meeting by anybody else. . . . Mr J. J. "Weathered was criticising Mr Sinclair's remarks when the chairman (Mr W. Machin) said that the meeting had better be closed without discussing the subject. Mr Weathered asked at what time it was decided to expel the child. Mr Sinclair said that it was decided | before 12 o'clock. He left the school at 11.30 to consult the chairman of the i committee, who agreed that there was I only one course. The step was taken in order that it should be a" lesson to the girl and to.others. ;That was the wlliole object of the expulsion. There was no opportunity to do it until the afternoon. The flag was saluted at 1.30, and the children stood in their lines for at least fifteen minutes. The child practically broke into the school on two occasions when everybody else had left, and she took everything she could find. He was trying, with the girl in his office, to discover what had become of the stolen articles. All he could get was that they had been lost on the way home, but she brought them back together with the unspent money. The step could not have been taken in the morning, before the saluting of tha flag, for the reasons he had stated. Mr Weathered said that he had been used to dealing with offending children, and was impressed with the fact that Magistrates suppressed the names of juvenile offenders. The case in the school should not have been made public.

Mr H- R. Atkinson said that these things should be done in private, not in public. Voices: Who made it public? Mr Sinclair, in reply to the chairman, said: "The child certainly was standing in the front of the assembled children, but she was not in a position to be seen by any except a few in the front row." A householder said that it was the newspapers that gave the affair publicity. Mr Atkinson moved that the meeting considered that it was not wise to have any public expulsions from schools in the future. The chairman said that as a motion had been passed thanking tho staff, he 'Could not accept a motion that oven by implicition mad© a charge agajnst the hendmaster. Mr Atkinson said that he could not alter the wording of his motion. The Chairman: Then I must decline to accept it, and I think the meeting will support me. Tho discussion then ended. All the members of the former committee, who were candidates, wore elected again. All stood except one, and his place was taken by Mr A. Ockenden.