Further to On The Wight reader Philippe Wines’ Letter to the Editor concerning indecent exposure of a pupil on a school bus, we got in touch with Medina College Head Teacher, Nathan Thomas, on Monday morning.
Many readers have expressed their keenness to hear his reaction to the incident detailed in Mr Wines’ letter.
“Apologise on the pupils behalf”
Mr Thomas told On The Wight, “Mr Wines sent an email which reached me on Friday 21 September 2012 related to an incident which had taken place earlier in the same week.
“As with all communication at Medina we endeavour to respond within 24 hours but when there is a weekend in the middle this is not always possible. When I read the email I was shocked and of course responded directly to Mr Wines to apologise on the pupils behalf.”
Mr Wines confirmed to On The Wight that he had received a brief apologetic email from the Head teacher on Sunday.
“Appalled by the behaviour”
Mr Thomas went on to say, “I was appalled by the behaviour of this small group of pupils on the bus which is in no way typical of Medina students. The student community would be appalled that someone would behave in such a way.
“As a school we work closely with the local authority to ensure the students are safe on their bus journeys to and from school and when anti-social behaviour is identified the pupil’s bus passes are often removed.
“The Local Authority are working to replace all of the double deckers on the island with coaches that have CCTV on board so that such behaviour can be identified and dealt with swiftly.
Appropriate action taken
When asked what action would be taken to ensure this type of incident didn’t occur again, Mr Thomas replied, “The individual has been identified and appropriate actions have been taken by the college including a letter of apology which will be sent directly to Mr Wines.
Pre-empting readers’ questions over what the ‘appropriate actions’ were, we did ask, but Mr Thomas told us he was, “not at liberty to comment on the specifics of actions we take against individual pupils, as I would not want to break the trust we have with parents.”
“Informed the relevant authorities”
He also went on to say, “Additionally we have informed the relevant authorities so they to can take action against the individual.”
The ‘relevant authorities’ in this case are the Local Authority, who Mr Thomas said are “in charge of the buses”.
Mr Thomas concluded, “I am very sorry that Mr Wines had to witness this behaviour, as a college we will continue to work with all of the pupils to educate them in the way they should behave when representing themselves and Medina in the local community.”
Image: p-a-t-r-i-c-k under CC BY 2.0
