The Queensland Government (Government) has proposed new laws that will expand the scope of principals' control over access to school grounds and also give them the right to obtain student criminal records. The Education and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2014(Bill) was introduced to State Parliament by Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek on Tuesday and according to Mr Langbroek, its changes are intended to support the Government's commitment to 'supporting principals and teachers to focus on their core business of educating students'.

As reported by the Brisbane Times, the Bill proposes new powers for state and non-state schools, in addition to those already introduced earlier this year as part of the Government's 'Great Teachers = Great Results' plan (Plan). The Plan is a five year $537 million action plan for all Queensland schools aimed at lifting standards of teaching and giving schools more flexibility to 'get on with the job'. To achieve this objective, the Education (General Provisions) Act 2006 (Qld) (Act) was amended to introduce new disciplinary powers for teachers to help them manage disruptive students.

Those powers included allowing state schools to suspend students when they are charged with or convicted of a serious offence (e.g. a violent sexual offence) or other offence if the school did not believe it was in the best interests of other students or staff for the student to attend school.  This change has the effect of allowing schools to discipline students for events which occurred outside school premises.

Now, the Government wants the following new powers to be introduced:

• the right for state schools to obtain 'confirmation' of a state school student's criminal history from the Queensland Police for the purposes of making a disciplinary decision;
• allowing principals of all schools to give a verbal direction to a hostile person to immediately leave and not re-enter school premises for 24 hours (currently a written direction is required);
• allowing the governing bodies of all schools to ban, via a written direction, hostile persons from entering school premises for more than 60 days but not more than one year (currently a written application to the Queensland Civil and Administration Tribunal is required); and
• allow the power to principals of all schools to give a written direction to prohibit a person from the premises for up to 60 days (currently only the school's governing body or the director general has this authority).

Importantly, directions to 'hostile persons' do not apply to students - whose behaviour on school premises will still be dealt with using school disciplinary procedures.

The Government views these new powers as justified by the overall objective of the Act, being to make schools safe places.  It also views these changes as enhancing school autonomy, localising decision making and reducing red tape.

Interestingly, public reaction to the new laws suggests that the Government might be going too far in extending the powers of schools and their principals by allowing them to take the law into their own hands.  Online comments posted in response to the proposed new laws suggested that principals may abuse their right to ask people to leave school premises, e.g. when a parent is in dispute with the school over an issue affecting their child, but where they do not pose a risk to the safety of others.

While this might just be a knee-jerk reaction to the news reports, it is easy to see how the changes, intended by the Government to reduce 'red tape' by allowing faster decision making on disciplinary and security issues - could be susceptible to abuse by those who wield new authority.

Do you think that schools need these extra powers?