Teen who ‘refused to move seats’ facing expulsion from private school

A father and son embroiled in a dispute with a private school say the system needs to change, as the son remains on the edge of expulsion.

Michael is a Year Nine student at independent Perth school Serpentine Jarrahdale Grammar.

The school has claimed Michael has been disruptive and argumentative in class.

He has been suspended seven times in recent years, and is now on the verge of being expelled.

Michael admits he's no angel, but said he had never physically hurt anybody, nor sworn at a teacher.

His father, John, claimed Michael had received a two-week suspension for refusing to move seats in class, which he said was "over the top".

"After all the money that I've spent, you're going to expel my son for not moving a seat?" he said.

John, a chef, said paying the school fees had been a "struggle" but at the time the family had thought it was "worth it".

In the days following Michael's latest suspension, he wrote an apology saying it had been explained to him that "disrupting the learning of others can be frustrating for both students and teachers, and parents".

He said he was willing to smarten up in class, writing that he would even see the school counsellor to "improve" his attitude.

But the school principal demanded Michael achieve certain goals, and face expulsion if he failed to reach them.

Independent schools have the right to make their own rules and regulations, but Ian Anderson from the Western Australian Primary Principals Association said they still had a duty to accept all students.

"I believe that all schools have the same responsibility, or should have the same responsibility in terms of managing students," he said.

"And where students are not fitting in, all schools should take on the responsibility of changing that behaviour or supporting the students and the parents to bring about a change."

He said he believed that in some circumstances, private schools could unfairly treat students who did not fall within their strict framework.

However, Beth Blackwood, from the Association of Heads of Independent Schools Australia, said she believed private schools were well within their rights to make students comply with reasonable standards of behaviour.

Michael and John said they believed the system needed to change.

"Things have to be fair and not unjust," John said.