Suspension of student illegal but not breaching FHR (UK Supreme Court)

The appellant was suspended following a complaint by a girl pupil at the school of misconduct in relation to her. The principal suspended the pupil pending a risk assessment, claiming to do so as a precautionary measure and in accordance with the ‘Scheme governing the suspension and expulsion of pupils’ but in effect failed to comply with its requirements. The Supreme Court ruled that the suspension was unlawful.

Appellant furthermore claimed that the suspension denied him the right to education guarnateed by the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act (1998). The Court observed that the right to education under Protocol 1, article 2, of the ECHR is breached if the person is denied effective access to such educational facilities as the State provides for such pupils. Since the Scheme dealing with suspension and expulsion actually made alternative arrangements for such pupils, there could be no such breach, even though the parents found objection to the alternative arrangements (para. 65, p. 23).

To access the actual judgement proceed to http://www.supremecourt.gov.uk/docs/uksc_2009_0173_judgment.pdf