Suspensions for racist abuse in schools in England went up by 29 per cent to 3,300 in 2005, according to Department for Education and Skills’s figures.
Suspensions for physical assaults on other pupils also went up by more than 11,000 and those on adults by nearly 2,500. Those for bullying increased by 14 per cent to nearly 1,000 and for sexual misconduct by 13 per cent to more than 400. Suspensions for drug and alcohol abuse fell by 9 per cent, the figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats revealed.
The total number of suspensions rose by 13 per cent to 45,000.