[EDLING:2266] Swedish-only Policy as response to discipline issues

[Francis M Hult]

Via lgpolicy...

> Swedish- only policy for school in southern Swedish town of  
> Lanskrona, following recent issues of discipline, lack of control,  
> and student bullying.
> 
> http://www.thelocal.se/6152/20070120
> 
> 'Swedish only' at Landskrona school
> 
> Published: 20th January 2007 12:05 CET
> Online: http://www.thelocal.se/6152/
> 
> The principal of Landskrona's Gustav Adolf School is to introduce a  
> new policy prohibiting the use of foreign languages on school  
> premises. Almost half of the children at the school come from an  
> immigrant background.
> 
> The rules are to be tightened following the expulsion of 6 pupils and  
> the suspension of 22 others from the school in the southern Swedish  
> town.
> 
> When leftover fireworks from the recent new year's celebrations  
> exploded inside the school on Thursday, health and safety  
> representative Leif Paulsson ordered the school's immediate closure.
> 
> The incident followed reports of boys urinating in girls' shoes, as  
> well as repeated bullying and beatings on school premises.
> 
> The only exception to the new rule is the teaching of foreign  
> languages. Otherwise only Swedish will be tolerated.
> 
> "This means that pupils may speak only Swedish in the classroom and  
> in the corridors. This applies even when they are speaking to each  
> other.
> 
> "We are doing this so that others will not be able to think that they  
> are saying anything insulting," principal Patrik Helgesson told  
> newspaper Helsingborgs Dagblad.
> 
> The Swedish Children's Ombudsman, Lena Nyberg, is deeply critical of  
> the measures.
> 
> "As an adult one must try to reach agreement with the children at a  
> school before introducing this type of regulation. Disciplinary rules  
> always work best where there is consensus," Nyberg told Helsingborgs  
> Dagblad.
> 
> "The situation in Landskrona seems to be one of abdication, whereby  
> staff have long since handed over power. Now they are trying to take  
> the power back by settinmg the rules unilaterally.
> 
> "There is a large dose of discrimination against children who speak a  
> different native language. The first thing that strikes me is that  
> there are many newly arrived children of refugees in Landskrona who  
> have not yet had the time to learn Swedish. Are they supposed to  
> avoid saying anything at all during the school day?" she added.
> 
> Parents will be notified if a pupil revert to speaking his or her  
> first languages. If the pupil continues doing so despite initial  
> warnings the parents will be brought to the school for further  
> discussion. If this does not solve the problem all parties involved  
> will be called to a conference to discuss a potential solution.
> 
> Gustav Adolf School is the first to impose the sort of language ban  
> suggested recently by two Liberal Party politicians in the nearby  
> city of Malmö.
> 
> "Some pupils at Gustaf Adolf School have been threatened and harassed  
> in the native languages of other pupils, which is why the rules have  
> been tightened," said administrative manager Ylva Runnström.
> 
> "Only Swedish may be spoken on school grounds. There are already  
> rules prohibiting harassment and this is a continuation of those.
> 
> "I am going to raise the issue of whether this should also be the  
> case in other schools. It is important that we have the same levels  
> of tolerance in all our schools," she added.
> 
> Ingegärd Milborn, a legal expert at the Swedish National Agency for  
> Education, has not heard of similar measures at any other school and  
> is uncertain as to the legality of the new regulation.
> 
> "The question is whether this can viewed as insulting towards the  
> children. Forbidding children from speaking their native language is  
> a sensitive matter. The situation is complicated for the school," she  
> told Helsingborgs Dagblad.
> 
> TT/The Local
> 
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