Swearing!

I find this whole debate over swearing really interesting. It seems odd to me that swearing at a teacher carries the automatic penalty of exclusion whereas other behaviours which are potentially physically dangerous do not.

We have to ask ourselves why children swear and what it means to them. For many children this is the language of the home. They have been spoken to like this from birth and hear it everyday. Some children swear at teachers because they are in a corner, or are out of control, it may be the only place they know to go when they are frustrated or angry, others do it to provoke a reaction(and what a reaction if they get excluded).

I think we have to ask ourselves many questions about this. Does the punishment really fit the crime? Although unacceptable, is swearing really as bad as we think? Are we missing something potentially more important if we focus on swearing? Does the teacher really lose their dignity if they are sworn at, is it not the child who has lost theirs?

As a principal I do exclude if a pupil swears at a member of staff. I would add that there is a real dilemma created for me when a pupil swears at a member of staff. I am well aware that I am not necessarily resolving the issue by excluding the pupil, but, I do believe that I am taking a step towards reducing the likelihood of the swearing happening again and, importantly, making a public statement that swearing at or threatening staff is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated. In my school, in the past three years, only two pupils have been suspended on more than one occasion for swearing at staff.I.e. repeat offending.

Pupils at my school know that swearing at a member of staff is a line they must not cross or they will be excluded. This applies to all staff, regardless of their role at the school or their position. On some occasions, because of the circumstances, I have decided not to exclude. In all such cases the reasons are made clear to both the member of staff concerned, the pupil and the family concerned.