Te Tai Tokerau Principal's Association president (and Hora Hora Primary School principal) Pat Newman has had enough of "media-driven, harping, poor woe is me stories" around the exclusion of children from schools, and blaming the schools.
"Let's get a few things straight," the principal of 41 years said last week.
"Schools do not exclude children just because they feel like it. Schools work themselves silly trying to help these children and their whānau, often with little support from them, or the ministries such as Health and Education.
"The report today on the 100 children who, in media hype, have been kicked out of school, is a case in point. It fails to ask some basic but very important questions:
"What was the behaviour and its causes that made other children unsafe if the children excluded stayed in the school? What help has the ministry offered those schools more than one hour a day teacher aide time when children are at school for six hours a day? Where are all the alternative therapies for those children we are talking about? Have whānau made any changes to their lifestyles and accepted help offered to them?"