After being provoked by two pupils at Foxhills, Rachael hit one of the girls on the school bus, the parents of this girl being in the teaching profession. The following day, she was suspended. We met the headteacher and agreed our daughter should be punished and suggested a fixed suspension term of about three weeks. Our daughter only has about six months left at school.

The headteacher decided to exclude our daughter permanently. We appealed to the board of governors, which upheld the head’s decision. We then had a meeting with the local education authority which overturned the head’s ruling. The school appealed to an independent tribunal which overruled the head’s decision and said Rachael was to return to Foxhills.

At a meeting we had with the headteacher on November 2, 1994, prior to Rachael returning to Foxhills on November 7, we were told she would return to school as on day one.

On November 9, we were informed that Rachael would be segregated and that the teachers would hold a ballot on whether to teach our child or not. On the November 16, our daughter was segregated and supervised by a teacher’s aide. She went to school in a taxi, she was not allowed to speak to her fellow pupils, most of whom she had known all her school life.

Her playtime was spent in a car park alone. She was taken out of school and along two roads and back for her dinner alone. She was told after the ballot the teachers would not set her any work and she would be segregated for the last five months of her schooling.

Our daughter finally cracked under this pressure and we have had to remove her. Her four years at the school and her potential GCSE passes were lost.

I just hope there will be a law passed to limit the time any pupil is segregated. We feel our daughter has been punished far too severely for one mistake she made. She is still out of school with nothing resolved.

Mrs Mrs RA Clarke 38 High Street Burringham Scunthorpe South Humberside.