Community service for suspended pupils in Valencia

Valencia schools will try a scheme to make expelled or suspended pupils work in the community.

Community service will be an alternative for pupils expelled or suspended for bad behaviour following the example of a school in Navarres, Community of Valencia. 

Unpaid jobs in nursing homes, making beds and cleaning, sweeping up sports courts or weeding in forestry areas to prevent forest fires are some of the tasks that they could be assigned to.

Headmistress, Amparo Bono, says being suspended and staying at home is no punishment to teenagers instead they see it as a bonus, but carrying out work in the community will make them think.

They will learn it is a lot harder to do these jobs than to just get on with their homework or behave respectfully towards teachers and classmates.

Valencia’s regional education authorities are considering suggesting the idea to all schools in the Valencian Community, which covers the three provinces of Alicante, Valencia and Castellon.