| The education department had earlier refused to answer questions about the incident, but issued a statement shortly after the Tele had lodged a Freedom of Information request.
St Paul’s Academy paid for the taxis after rowdiness on a bus at the end of the school day led to pupils being ejected.
An angry bus driver told the pupils to leave the vehicle in an episode last week, and several taxis had to be called to take pupils home.
An education department spokesman said, “The decision to find alternative sources of transport for pupils was taken for safety reasons.
“St Paul’s Academy was dealing with a behaviour situation where a bus had returned to the school and everyone on board was told to leave by the driver — whether they had been involved or not.”
The spokesman said this had left some pupils stranded at the school at the end of the day with no way of getting home through no fault of their own.
“St Paul’s Academy is served by a number of bus services which operate only for a limited time at the start and end of the school day,” he continued.
“This is to transport pupils who come from across the city where there are no other direct services to the school.
“The majority of pupils who were removed from the bus were not involved in the incident, and they were then left with no other public transport to get home.
“That was why the school took the decision to find alternative transport for these pupils, and ordered taxis in the interests of pupil safety.”
The spokesman said the school immediately contacted the parents of those pupils who were identified as being involved in the incident, and asked them to collect their children.
“Pupils are constantly reminded to be on their best behaviour when travelling on buses and the school is very disappointed this incident has happened,” he added. |
