EXPULSION!

By Goolbai Gunasekara

Somewhere along the way of my long educational career both as a student and a teacher, the word ‘expulsion’ has occasionally quivered in the air. At certain times it does more than quiver. It actually hovers and then strikes.

Expulsion was very rare in my time at school. In fact I cannot recall even one such instance. Principals at the time usually made a discreet suggestion to the parents of the miscreant who then took the hint and removed their child from school. Getting the boy or girl into another school was not much of a problem then. There was no ‘area rule’ no overcrowding, no restrictions on transfers from school to school. The Principals did a little quiet and tactful rearranging among themselves and all was well.

Generally speaking expulsion was not advertised to all and sundry. The Principal and Senior Staff may have known the whys and wherefores of the causes but certainly it was never announced to the public at large. Certainly not to the student body who might have been wildly curious but remained unsatisfied.

I remember the case of a well-known school for boys in Colombo which did expel one of their shining lights for ‘Misconduct with a younger boy’. Even then euphemisms were used to describe an act which today is declared legal by many countries of the world. And we were told in hushed tones (by brothers and cousins) that such behavior was quite the norm – especially if one was a boarder at a boys’ school. Of course the secret of survival was never to be caught.

But such was not the norm at girls’ schools. Girls had ‘crushes’ on older girls or even teachers – although it must be said that except for one or two our teachers were rather hatchet faced and behaved like minor Hiders. Crushes on older girls went no further than carrying their school bags and being generally helpful.

I remember one highly beautiful and popular teacher at one of the many schools I attended. As she walked through the gates there were about 12 little minions ready to carry her bag, her satchel, her purse – even her hanky had she so desired. I was one of the little minions and I adored her. I was late at the gate on one particular day and seeing me on the verge of tears (such was the purity of our love) she handed me her pen and said, “Carry this for me Goolbai.” I walked on air the rest of the day. I was all of I 1 years old

But now expulsion is no longer rare. Thuggery, the use of drugs, the carrying of knives, even school bullying, rival gangs etc. are all part of every school’s on- going problems…..yes even girls’ schools – on a lesser scale of course. Most of the older International schools keep a tight grip on their student populations which is possible since such populations are generally small.

How do they do this? Prefects are carefully chosen who help in carrying out tactful bag searches which could unearth pornographic literature or even marijuana. Usually they unearth nothing more exciting than a forbidden video game or an adult movie but should such a search bear fruit, expulsion is instant and so fast the guilty one hardly has time to pack his bag.

Violent behaviour in school is another problem. Despite rules which say no student may touch another in anger, it happens! Kids are exposed to violence in movies and the violence in Sri Lanka itself, as highlighted by the newspapers tells them that life is cheap. All it needs fora small incident to become a tragedy is for one uncontrollable boy to get out of hand as does happen according to all accounts. Expulsion has become the order of the day.

No longer can Principals take the high moral ground – especially in local schools- where their own reprehensible behaviour frequently hits the headlines.

There is yet another devilish invention that haunts all educators – namely – the Smart Phone. Cyber bullying takes place without conscience among youngsters. To halt it is almost impossible. It is only when some child has been gravely affected by all these dastardly inventions can Principals take note. Foolish girls sometimes take revealing photos of themselves to be given to boyfriends. Boys being boys show them around. In no time the Principal is alerted. In one extreme case we heard that the child committed suicide before she had to face the music. This was never openly discussed by the school concerned.

Again, at such times expulsion is on the cards and I often ask myself what parental folly puts these sophisticated phone instruments into the hand of youngsters who have no idea how to wield the power they carry in their immature little hands.

Had my own Principal at Bishop’s (an Anglican nun) the tall, dignified and gracious Sister Gabrielle, been confronted with these events and inventions she would have retired to her nunnery in the UK and remain incarcerated the rest of her life. In her wildest dreams she could never have imagined the scenarios now being enacted in the schools of this country.

Expulsion today has little to do with the reasons for expulsions that operated in the 1950s. Expulsion is probably the only tool in the hands of Principals of modern times. It is not a tool any educator wants to use but the world we live in is a violent one and there is nothing we can do to prevent its tide rolling inexorably over Sri Lanka’s students.

(Last Sunday’s feature article article “For school leavers,” like this one, was written by Goolbai Gunasekara from an anthology of her collected articles titled The ‘Principal’ Factor first published in the Lanka Market Digest over a period of three-four years. We regret the omission of her byline last week).