Death threat pupil agrees to expulsion

One of the boys expelled for making death threats against a teacher has agreed not to return to the school.

The decision came after support staff at Glyn Technology School in Epsom, Surrey, voted to walk out if the two boys were readmitted.

Although one of the families has now agreed that their son will not return to the school, Surrey County Council has not reached an agreement with the second boy's parents.

Yesterday, catering and cleaning workers, caretakers and classroom assistants voted that they would force the school to close by refusing to work rather than accept the boys' return, the GMB union said. A spokesman said: "Our members are very angry at the thought that these two boys could be readmitted to the school.

"We hope the local authority will take note of the anger on the ground over this case. The threats made by the boys were completely inexcusable."

The council refused to comment on the threat of industrial action by the GMB. "What eventually happens will depend on the course of action agreed between the local education authority and the parents," a spokesman said.

The education authority has yet to allocate a place to the boy who has agreed not to return to the school.The second family still want their son to be readmitted.

The boys – now in their GCSE exam year – were expelled in June for making a series of abusive phone calls, including death threats, to Steve Taverner, a teacher who had disciplined them for throwing stones at a window.

But their parents appealed to an independent panel which ruled last month that the boys should return. The panel concluded that the headteacher had not followed the expulsion procedures correctly, that the threats had not been serious and that it was important that the boys' studies were not disrupted.

The school's teachers refused to have the boys in their lessons when they returned this month.

Instead the pair had to be taught in a separate classroom by a supply teacher.

The boys are now being taught at home after Estelle Morris, the Secretary of State for Education, intervened and demanded the boys be removed from the school.

Mr Taverner's union, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, has voted to take industrial action if the teenagers are allowed back.