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pauldenton
join:2003-12-20
London

1 recommendation

pauldenton

Member

charity wastes £250k (and counting..) on excluded schoolbo

The Sunday Times April 02, 2006

Charity 'wasted' £250,000 aiding accused schoolboy
Abul Taher
A CHILDREN’S charity has been accused of “wasting” £250,000 of taxpayers’ money by helping a pupil to sue his school after he had been excluded for alleged arson.

Abdul Hakim Ali was excluded from Lord Grey school in Milton Keynes in 2001 after he and two other pupils were accused by police of setting a classroom bin on fire.

When the police dropped the case on the grounds of insufficient evidence, Ali, then 13, was helped by the Children’s Legal Centre (CLC) to sue his school for damages.

The CLC, which receives cash from the national lottery and BBC Children in Need and used £50,000 of legal aid money to fight the case, claimed Ali’s human right to education had been breached by the school. It brought in Cherie Blair, wife of the prime minister, to act on his behalf.

But last month the law lords ruled in favour of the school, arguing that it was right to exclude him, and ruled that it had done enough to provide him with alternative arrangements for his education. The school, which spent about £200,000 on its defence, hopes its costs will be awarded against CLC.

The law lords said the human rights law did not specify individuals had the right to demand education from any particular institution.

Critics point out that it was difficult to justify spending £250,000 of public money on the case because even if Ali had won, the maximum he could have received was about £10,000 in damages.

David Willetts, the shadow education secretary, said: “Schools clearly have a right to expel pupils who are a threat to other pupils. I am totally against the fact that £250,000 of taxpayers’ money had to be wasted to establish this.”

John Dunford, head of the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed the ruling as a triumph of common sense. “With this case we’ve now got the strongest reinforcement of the discipline of the teacher,” he said.

However, more public money is to be spent on the case, as Ali, now at university, wants to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

The CLC lost another case when the law lords ruled against attempts by Shabina Begum, 17, to fight for the right to wear full Islamic dress to school. The case cost the public £100,000.

The charity is now preparing another case on behalf of a 14-year-old girl with learning difficulties who is suing Hertfordshire county council for £50,000 because she was made pregnant by a fellow pupil at a boarding school.

Carolyn Hamilton, director of the CLC and the barrister who also represented Ali, said: “This was the very first case in the interpretation of this particular human right clause. At some point there needs to be a ruling and there has to be an interpretation of the law.”

»www.timesonline.co.uk/ar ··· ,00.html

nemo1966
join:2005-11-15
England

1 edit

nemo1966

Member

Re: charity wastes £250k (and counting..) on excluded scho

Exactly why I refuse to give any money to any charity!

Out of every £1 given I'd guess only 5% will get to the actual destination. The rest will be swallowed up in paperwork and wages for MD's (CEO's) with £200,000 salaries and driving flash cars.

I think the worst one of recent years was the Tsunami. I think this Country gave hundreds of millions in relief (charity) only to have the Indian or Sri Lankan government TAX it!!!!

To me thats taking the p*ss.

What gets my goat is WHO gives the government the permission to waste all of our money of stupid charities and giving other Countries AID when we have a Country that is taxed to death to pay for it!!!!

This Countries judicial and governmental institutions are corrupt and built to accommodate every other culture except our own.

Ignite
Premium Member
join:2004-03-18
UK

Ignite to pauldenton

Premium Member

to pauldenton
Wonder if Children in Need and the Lottery are aware of this frivilous wasting of money.

»www.childrenslegalcentre.com has a feedback page incase you want to express your thanks to these guys for constant wasting of tax payer's money on ridiculous cases like this.

This is what happens when you staff a charity with lawyers, obviously they aren't very good going by bringing up these kind of cases but it keeps them in Mercedes.