Expelled at 12, 16-year-old Brittany Murray deserves a second chance.

At the age of 12, Brittany Murray had been the victim of bullying at school for more than a year. Then she made a bad mistake.

Murray has told The Age that other students spread rumours that her mother was a junkie, and made fun of her body. She fought back with her fists, and one day, when she heard an older boy was going to beat her up, she brought a knife to her school, Rosehill Secondary College in Victoria.

Her older sister pulled her out of school. According to Murray when she tried to re-enrol, the principal, Peter Rouse, didn’t reply. Murray turned up to the school, vandalised cars, and ended up punching Rouse in the chest.

Murray is now 16. She has been studying at St Joseph’s Flexible Learning Centre, for students with complex problems. She wants to return to a mainstream school, but 20 state schools have knocked her back.

“I just want to pass year 12 and get the education that I’ve missed out on,” she says. “I want to try to get somewhere in life.”

‘I deserve another chance’: The student no school wants https://t.co/Bs9jPRaVpV

— The Age (@theage) February 27, 2017

Child and adolescent psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg thinks Murray’s situation is “disgraceful”.

“One of the things that helps young people recover is socialising with their mates,” he tells Mamamia. “In fact, the greatest predictor of wellbeing in young people is having a rich repertoire of friends. Now if you’re excluded from school, that’s just a major risk factor for your mental health.

“We are all entitled to make mistakes. We know that a kid’s brain isn’t fully developed till the mid-twenties. One of unique characteristics of kids that age is the inability to predict the consequences of their actions. So this whole policy is anti-young people and should immediately be abolished, as far as I’m concerned.”

Dr Carr-Gregg says there may be some cases where a young person isn’t able to cope at school due to psychological problems, and will cause disruption to the school. But he doesn’t believe Murray falls into this category.

The Age reveals that the Victorian Ombudsman is investigating complaints from families with children who have been expelled, saying they’re struggling to enrol their children in other schools. There has been a 27 per cent increase in expulsions at state schools.

Jonathon Sargeant, a senior lecturer at the Australian Catholic University, believes schools are pressured to expel misbehaving students to protect their brand.

Once expelled, some kids find it hard to re-enrol at a state school. Image via iStock.

Psychologist Gregory Nicolau, from the Australian Childhood Trauma group, tells Mamamia that suspending, expelling or excluding kids from an education is a "reptilian brain reaction".

"Children and young people acting out or withdrawing are letting the world know that all is not well," he points out.

"It is possible to turn children’s and young people’s lives around. It starts by giving them another chance with the appropriate supports to succeed."

Dr Carr-Gregg reveals that his own child was "bashed up" at school by a kid with a conduct disorder

"I remember looking at the bruises on my child and thinking very dark thoughts - a, about the school, and b, about the child," he remembers. "The reality is that that child has as much right to be at school as the next child, but they don’t have the right to inflict pain on my child. What I expect is a system that recognises the problem first time and then actually does something about it."

We can't give up on someone who made a mistake at the age of 12. Brittany Murray and other young people like her deserve a second chance.