THE mother of a 15-year-old boy suspended from class until he names attackers who assaulted two school cleaners claims her son is being treated unjustly.

Staff at Huntington School made the unanimous decision to stop teaching the teenager after two youths who followed him on to the school grounds badly beat up two male cleaners.

The boy, who had been excluded from lessons and was being taught in isolation, has now been suspended for ten days after he walked out of school because he couldn't spend break times with his friends.

His mother, who does not want herself or her son to be named, said her son played no part in the attack, and had no way of knowing for certain who the attackers were.

"My concern now is getting my child back to school and through his GCSE exams," she said. "This was a very serious assault and it is completely unacceptable, but my boy is being penalised for something he didn't even do.

"He is a kid in crisis, and this exclusion has not helped one bit."

The mum claims her son was expelled from school before Christmas for shouting abuse through a bus window at a member of staff.

On the day of the attack, she had gone into school with her son to discuss his return.

She said she and her son were in a meeting with head teacher Chris Bridge when the incident happened and so her son had no way of knowing who carried it out.

The Evening Press reported on Thursday that the two cleaners, both in their 50s, went out to disperse the youths, who were on bikes. The cleaners were attacked and one man was hit from behind, receiving cuts and bruises to his head which needed hospital treatment.

Both youths, who were wearing scarves covering their faces, went on to punch and kick the men when they were on the ground.

The attack happened at 5.25pm on Thursday, January 12, and the culprits are not believed to be Huntington School pupils.

Mr Bridge has 15 years' experience as a head teacher and, before he came to the 1,510-pupil Huntington School eight years ago, taught at a school in Leeds.

He said in all that time he had never seen another incident as bad as this. He said: "The boy still needs to give up the names of those with him, whether they did it or not.

"He's not prepared to help, or even condemn what happened.

"The moment he gives the police the names, all this stops."

PC Chris Poole, of York Police, said: "We would urge anyone who might know the identity of the group to come forward and assist this investigation."

Updated: 11:03 Monday, January 23, 2006