NNSL (Jan 10/97) - Sixteen-year-old Neil Hardisty just wants to go back to school.

But Hardisty isn't permitted to attend either high school in Yellowknife for the rest of the year after he was expelled from St. Patrick's high school.

"Teachers are supposed to keep us in schools and give us hope not to drop out," said Hardisty. "It's not fair that I can't go to school."

Suspended twice in November for not attending classes, Hardisty admits he's no angel -- he's also been in trouble at school.

Despite his background, he said that cutting his education is not the right punishment.

"I'll take any other punishment they offer to go back to school," said the Grade 11 student. "Being expelled for the rest of the year is quite a long time."

The Yellowknife Catholic Education School Board voted to expel Hardisty and one other student Dec. 18. But his mom Violet, hadn't received any notification of the dismissal.

Annoyed by the amount of school her son was missing because of suspensions, she withdrew her son from St. Patrick's high school Nov. 26.

"Nothing was getting resolved," she said. "They just kept suspending him. Instead of him losing more time, I decided I would enrol him at Sir John Franklin high school."

But she said that the Yellowknife Education District No. 1 wouldn't except him on the grounds of the expulsion at St. Patrick's high school.

Wendy Hutchinson, a policy advisor at the Department of Education, said that school boards aren't obligated to accept students who have been banned from other districts.

"They are able to accept students who have been expelled, but are not required," she said. "It's up to their discretion."

Section 5 of the new NWT Education Act says every person is entitled to access to an education. However, they also have to be in accordance with the act and follow its regulations.

It's the Education Act that gave the Catholic school board the grounds to get rid of Hardisty.

Loretta Foley, superintendent of the Catholic School Board, would only say that they used one or two provisions of the act to expel Hardisty.

The act says that a student can be expelled for a term or the rest of the year if he "is injurious to the physical or mental well-being of the other students of school staff," and/or if he "creates a situation that constitutes a seriously harmful influence on other students or school staff."

"I can't give reasons because that's confidential," she said.

The act also says that students younger than 16 are entitled to receive alternative education if they are expelled from school.

But the Catholic school board isn't required to provide Hardisty with another educational program because, at 16, he no longer qualifies.

As a result, Hardisty hasn't been in school since November, and doesn't know if he can find another school that will accept him so that he can finish this year.