 Mr Blair promised to look at rules on school exclusions |
Tony Blair has said the decision to allow a boy back into school after he was banned for carrying a knife was "quite extraordinary". The pupil had also been found guilty of violent conduct, Labour MP Graham Stringer told the Commons.
But a head teacher in Manchester had been "forced" by an independent appeals panel to reinstate him, he said during prime minister's questions.
Mr Blair promised to look into changing the rules on exclusions.
'Despair'
He said: "It seems quite extraordinary a decision to come to."
Mr Stringer, MP for Manchester Blackley, said: "The boy had been found in possession of a knife. He had been found guilty of violent conduct.
"Understandably, the head teacher is angry and in despair at this perverse judgement of the appeals panel."
He later told the BBC News website: "He is furious. He needs to have the right to be able to exclude this pupil.
"I am glad the prime minister is going to look into this."
Concern is rising over children carrying knives.
Kiyan Prince, 15, was stabbed to death outside the London Academy in Edgware, north-west London, last month.
A 16-year-old boy was arrested over the death and is in custody.
Meanwhile, a 14-year-old boy was wounded in a stabbing outside Heartlands High School in Birmingham school a few days later.
The Home Office is currently reviewing sentences for knife crimes.
A company has apologised for sending penknives to a special school for children with emotional problems. The head of Southfield School in Wokingham, Berkshire, Mike Pedley, was sent two penknives carrying the school name and postcode by National Pen Ltd, inviting him to sign up for more.
He said: "I'm appalled, horrified - in the middle of a knife amnesty too."
A member of staff at National Pen's Manchester base said responsibility lay with the firm's US-based marketing department.
"We are very sorry. We were shocked when we found out," he said.
APPEAL PANELS
Exclusion appeal panels are independent of local authorities. They operate in relative secrecy: names of the members are not published, they meet behind closed doors and their deliberations are not published.
But their decisions are binding on all involved - so if they decide to reinstate pupils the school has no option but to take them back. The only appeal is by way of judicial review in the High Court.
The guidance to the panels was changed in response to concerns from head teachers, in particular, that pupils they had expelled for violence were being reinstated.
In 2000, the then education secretary David Blunkett made it clear to appeal panels it was inappropriate for youngsters who had used "violence or the severe threat of violence" to be "thrust back into the same school".
But the courts have held that, for one thing, guidance is just that - it is not rules.
And in a Court of Appeal case, Lord Justice Schiemann said the way guidance was originally issued - in a ministerial speech to teachers - was important.
He said it was "evident that the changes were in part intended to satisfy or mollify a particular constituency and a particular segment of public opinion".
If ministers used their powers "by announcing them in a manner or in a context suggestive of a search for political gain, the courts are likely to construe the changes cautiously".
The government also changed the constitution of the appeal panels:
- to make them more "school friendly", they should mostly be people with direct teaching experience
- they should focus on the key issues - rather than taking account of any technical irregularity in the exclusion process
- they should balance the interests of the excluded pupil against the interests of the whole school community.
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