School exclusions and First-tier Tribunal - is it worth it

Hi All

I have an eight year old son who was diagnosed with autism just over a year ago. We had known he probably was for some time before that but needed a formal diagnosis to get his school to recognise it. He would would be classified as Asperger's if the term was still officially used.

My son has been excluded four times for aggressive behaviour. The most recent were in June this year and then last week. In both cases a four day exclusion was given on the recommendation of the executive head of the academy. My son is in one of their 9 primary schools.

All exclusions are similar. My son has problems going into school. On bad days he will go to the floor or hang on to his parent at school entrance. The head teacher tried to physically pull my child into school. He then lashed out (kicking?) and the head has claimed she was hurt and filled in an accident report. This goes to the executive head who orders a four day exclusion. 

The school know Alex can be difficult and despite advice from an experienced autism counsellor we bought in, who has worked in schools for 15 years, they have no formal handling plan. At the reintegration meeting following exclusion in June the counsellor made very clear his view. Physical intervention should only occur when all other avenues have been exhausted. If you intervene you should know what you are doing, have enough trained staff present, and accept the possibility that you may get hit. The school simply aren't following this advice. They intervene after a few minutes even though it is obvious that my son is distressed and not in a fit state to comply. Given time he will calm down but the school are not prepared to wait. 

The school are completely inconsistent. If my son throws tables or chairs or hits members of staff who aren't hurt then no exclusion takes place.

I am wondering if I should take these last two exclusions to a First-tier tribunal. My son is getting bigger (approx size of an 11 year old) and clearly he is much more likely to injure a member of staff as he grows. The school aren't learning anything regarding physical intervention and some guidance might come out of the tribunal process.

I feel my son has been excluded as a direct result of his disability and the schools failure to have a process in place to deal with him.

Am I wasting my time with this process or could it be of benefit to my son? 

I appreciate members of staff shouldn't get hurt at school but if they act foolishly is it the child's fault if they are hurt? 

P.S. We have applied for an EHCP for my son and it is likely to go ahead but not until after xmas as county council are behind and won't meet statutory deadlines. Even with an EHCP I am unclear how it will help when a staff member tries to physically intervene and gets hurt as a result.