A mother whose 10-year-old son was expelled from the English Schools Foundation (ESF) after a playground scuffle has launched legal proceedings to reverse the decision, which branded her child a 'danger'. Anne Elaine Gately, also known as Elaine Howlett, yesterday filed a High Court writ on behalf of her son over the ESF's March 26 decision to throw the boy out of Kennedy School and bar him from all other ESF primary schools. Ms Gately is asking the courts for a judicial review and an order to quash the decision. The writ states the boy was in his last year of primary school, which is due to end on June 30. But on March 23 he became involved in an 'altercation' at school with another Year Six pupil. 'In response to name calling, [he] lost his temper and pushed [the other boy] against the wall, using a hand or hands on his neck,' the writ says. 'Although [the victim] slumped to the ground after [Ms Gately's son] let go of him, it is not clear that [the victim] lost consciousness and upon examination by the school nurse ... it was recorded that there were no physical marks on the neck or head.' The writ says that despite Ms Gately's son being sent home and told he could return the next day, the boy's parents were told on March 26 he had been expelled. 'The stated reason for the decision was that the ESF and school had a responsibility to ensure to the other 899 children in the school not to put them in danger and they felt [the boy] was a danger,' the writ says. The writ also adds that an attempt to enrol the expelled boy at the Kellett School in Wah Fu was blocked by the ESF and its expulsion order. Ms Gately's son now has to travel almost two hours each day to attend the privately run Lantau International School. The writ says the decision to expel the boy was made at 'very great speed and was wholly wrong in the circumstances and bearing in mind the far reaching and long-term consequences of the decision'. Describing the process as riddled with 'procedural unfairness', Ms Gately also says the ESF made the decision without first speaking to her son. 'As a result, the decision made was based on the accounts of others without giving the persons most affected any opportunity to put forward their version of events,' the writ says.