Less than an hour after using a sexually vulgar statement at a teacher, a suspended student was allowed to return to class.

The 14-year-old at the centre of controversy at CedarBridge Academy yesterday benefited from a Ministry of Education code of conduct.

Under the Ministry of Education?s Code of Conduct for Students 2003, appeals are made by parents to the Minister of Education and the suspended child can return to school until the appeal hearing.

However, Bermuda Union of Teachers president Lisa Trott said the code led to an emergency meeting at CedarBridge on Friday morning and all students being sent home.

?The student was sexually vulgar to a teacher,? Ms Trott said. ?These incidents happen on an ongoing basis. We have had discussions with the Ministry and we are in the process of revising the Code, however, we do understand it is in the purview of the Chief Education Officer Dr. Edward Christopher to make such a decision.?

However, she wanted the public to know while Dr. Christopher was invited to meet with teachers from the meetings start at 8.30 a.m. ? by 12 p.m. he ?had chosen not meet with teachers? despite the fact he was on the CedarBridge campus.

Dr. Christopher did not return calls yesterday.

?Even though it is not formalised in the Code of Conduct as yet, the teachers of CedarBridge are asking that the Ministry as their employer, supports their right to work in a safe environment,? Ms Trott said. ?The parent apparently launched an appeal with the Ministry.

?The Ministry?s stance is that once an appeal is launched the student can come back to school, but when that is done within half hour obviously there are issues and feelings on both sides, the student and the teacher, and you can?t expect to put them right back in the same situation,? she said.

While teachers were annoyed and angry at the Code, they did not want the 14-year-old expelled, she said.

?All we were asking for was for the suspension to be upheld,? she said. ?We are not interested in expelling anybody and making them not eligible to go to school, but certainly when an infraction occurs there should be a response that is immediate and effective.

She said the point of a suspension was to give a ?cooling-off period? for teachers and students, but this had not been allowed to happen. ?When the Ministry immediately sends them back to the campus it puts both the teacher and the student in jeopardy,? she said.

CedarBridge Academy Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) president Karen Belboda had problems with a student being put back into a volatile situation.

?The Ministry need to rethink its position on the Code of Conduct, which does say all parents are allowed to appeal,? Mrs. Belboda said.

When asked whether the parents of the disruptive 14-year-old preferred it when he was in school, Mrs. Belboda said there may have been circumstances to direct their actions.

It was previously reported, that all appeals against the suspension of students from public schools were quashed in 2005 ? six parents from Senior Schools and four from Middle Schools, Mr. Lister said in the House of Assembly on March 6.

Grounds of appeal included that the penalty was too harsh, the school?s investigative procedures were faulty and the child was defending himself.

However, the Minister also revealed seven students on the Island experienced ?extreme acting out behaviours? in the last school year and needed ?one-on-one therapy?.

The average length of out-of-school suspension was nine school days, he said, the shortest lasting two days and the longest 24 days.