A HEADTEACHER has vowed to deal "severely" with any pupil who commits acts of so-called "happy slapping" after excluding three children from her school.

Geralyn Wilson, of Great Marlow School, made the comments after a student was filmed on a mobile phone being attacked.

A boy in Year Ten was slapped in the face during the incident which saw three other Year Ten pupils excluded last week.

But the incident is just one of many attacks throughout the country at the moment as a craze of filming crime becomes increasingly popular with new technology.

Mrs Wilson told the Free Press: "Three students have been severely dealt with and when we need to, we exclude children. We have told every single student in the school that it will not be tolerated.

"The worst thing about these incidents is that stud-ents are going to be humiliated so it is not tolerable," she added.

Mrs Wilson said the boy was not injured in the incident and that the three other students have only been excluded as a short-term measure. The matter was dealt with internally and police were not called.

Following the news, Buckinghamshire County Council revealed there had been "a handful" of similar incidents in local schools and said it would do its best to stop them escalating.

Cllr Marion Clayton, portfolio holder for schools, said: "As far as I am aware, there have been a handful of isolated so-called happy slapping' incidents in Buck- inghamshire schools since this started, with varying degrees of violence from pupils being a little shaken to requiring GP treatment.

"All were dealt with swiftly by the schools, including the use of temporary exclusions of the pupils involved, speaking with parents, and reminding all pupils that such behaviour is totally unacc-eptable in our schools."

Incidents of "happy slap-ping" hit the headlines after a teenager was knocked unconscious in Manchester last week while being filmed.

Great Marlow School, in Bobmore Lane, made no secret of its disgust for the act after telling Year Ten stud-ents in a presentation that further incidents would not be tolerated.

The school highlighted its "strong record" for discipline and said the incident would be used "to set the standard" for acts of a similar nature.

And Mrs Wilson said she did not expect "any further episodes".

She said: "The children taking this sort of action is against everything that hap-pens at this school. We are very firm and extremely strong all parents support this. It is all about the swift-ness of the response."