I’ve had teenage boys twice my height square up to me in the classroom, swear at me, and hurl both racist and misogynistic abuse my way. They might think that I’d fully support the prospect of banishing ‘problem’ students, making them their parents’ – or anyone else’s, really – responsibility. All kids, even the ones hurling chairs and smoking in the toilets, are a product of problems far bigger than themselves. Just because suspended students are not at home doomscrolling into oblivion or causing havoc on street corners doesn’t mean they aren’t being failed. The simple fact is that when ministers tell teachers like me that suspended students should be kept in school, it’s because it’s convenient for them.