HC Deb 14 July 1938 vol 338 cc1509-10
50. Mr. Thorne

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education whether he can now give any information in connection with two boys that have been expelled from the Poole Grammar School for smoking out of school hours; and what action he intends taking about the matter?

Mr. Lindsay

I understand that the boys broke a school rule against smoking in public and preferred expulsion to the alternative of receiving light corporal punishment and giving a promise to observe the rule in future. In view of the flagrant and open defiance of school rules, the governors decided to exclude the boys from the school.

Mr. Thorne

Is it a fact that the rules and regulations of this school deal not only with the time the boys are in the school, but with the whole of their private life outside?

Mr. W. Astor

Will my hon. Friend make sure that the governors of the school do not themselves practice this unpleasant habit of smoking?