Children in Croydon are being permanently excluded from secondary schools at the highest rate in outer London, new figures reveal.
Dozens of pupils were expelled from their school last year, while thousands were also suspended for misdemeanours including assaults on staff, racism and sexual misconduct.
The Department for Education statistics sparked concern among teachers and councillors, while a teaching union suggested some pupils were expelled for "minor offences".
A total of 59 students were permanently kicked out from Croydon secondary schools during the 2011-12 academic year, equivalent to 0.27 per cent of the school population.
Nineteen of those were for persistent disruptive behaviour and 18 were for assaulting other pupils - the two most common reasons for expulsion.
The borough's schools expell children more often than in any other borough except Bromley, which saw the same rate.
The figures show an increase on the previous year, when 48 youngsters were permanently excluded in Croydon - 0.23 per cent of all secondary school pupils.
Croydon also had the second highest rate in outer London for suspensions, with 2,250 imposed last year.
Coun Kathy Bee, Labour's spokeswoman for education, described the figures as "really disappointing".
She said: "When kids are excluded it is really disruptive for them, but it also means something disruptive has happened for the school.
"The ideal is that schools are able to manage behaviour within the school and hopefully head off behaviour before it gets to exclusion stage."
Coun Kathy Bee
A disproportionate exclusion rate for Black Carribean pupils was an ongoing concern, added Coun Bee.
Mike Dawson, secretary of NASUWT teaching union's Croydon branch, said expulsions were sometimes necessary but only if all other options had failed.
He said: "As teachers we want the best for our children. Every child has the right to a good education.
"What we don't want is disruptive pupils because they hinder teaching and learning. If they are then they need to be deal with.
"Whether schools in Croydon are dealing with them in the appropriate way is for individual schools to look at themselves and decide why they are having to exclude pupils.
"Are there other behaviour management strategies they haven't employed that could be implemented first?"
He claimed that, at newly opened academies, troublemaking children "tend to be excluded for minor offences rather than being dealt with".
Five Croydon academies - Oasis in Shirley Park and Coulsdon, Harris in South Norwood and Crystal Palace, and Quest in South Croydon - accounted for 20 permanent expulsions last year.
But Addington High School kicked out nine pupils, the highest number.
Upper Norwood councillor John Wentworth, headteacher at a Corpus Christi School in Brixton, said exclusion was "a last resort" for schools.
He said: "I wouldn't criticise the schools themselves. No Croydon headteacher would lightly exclude a child. They would exhaust every other possibility first."
Coun John Wentworth
But he added: "But we need to ensure schools have not only the resources but also the expertise to to deal with challenging behaviour, as well as looking at early intervention. I would question whether there is sufficient early intervention going on."
A Croydon Council spokesman said exclusion rates overall - "reduced exclusion rates significantly" in the last decade.
He added: "We ended the last academic year with no exclusions from primary schools.
"Although minority ethnic exclusion rates remain high this is an issue across the UK but we‘ve already brought them below national averages.
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