At least one child is excluded and 27 more are suspended every day from schools in East Sussex.

Sexual assault on pupils and staff, arson, drug offences, possession of weapons, violence and racist abuse - these are just some of the reasons youngsters have been removed from the register.

Figures obtained through the Freedom of Information Act reveal 22,653 students in East Sussex were temporarily excluded and 440 permanently excluded from school between September 2002 and December 2006.

The figures show more pupils each year since 2002 have been suspended from school - with the number expelled increasing by 15 per cent during this period.

Former headteacher Stuart Newton, of Woodlands Close, Peacehaven, who worked at Hatcham Woods School in Lewisham for 22 years, said teachers were getting tougher as students got naughtier.

He said: "It is probably a bit of both children misbehaving more and teachers taking a tougher approach.

"Heads are being rather less amiable to kids who just want to go into school to mess about.

"They are becoming less tolerant because the majority of kids are getting fed up with the kids who are disruptive.

"I would take a hard line because you cannot allow pushing of drugs, weapons and bullying in schools.

"If you heard about a kid bringing a knife into school you would send him home because of what would it sound like in a coroner's court if you did otherwise."

Bexhill High School has expelled 34 pupils since September 2002 - more than any other in East Sussex - for offences including drug-dealing, assaults and lighting fires.

Headteacher Mike Conn said his expulsion rate is high because he does not accept students continuously misbehaving.

He said: "Over the five-year period we have called the police 40-odd times.

"The hidden message is therefore we must be bad but it is the complete opposite.

"There are other schools in the area that never call the police and leave it to the parents so it doesn't appear on their records.

"My responsibility is to those who want to learn. If I have excluded more than anyone else it is because this is the largest school in the county for 11 to 16-year-olds and on the border of two deprived wards."

The Grove in St Leonards has suspended 1,590 pupils since September 2002 - 140 more than any other in the area - for offences including using and possessing drugs, threatening and assaulting staff, obscene behaviour and arson.

The school were unable to comment by the time The Argus went to press.

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