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Mother lambasts school over bullying problem
‘We were dealing with it’ says head after pupil, 11, removed
A MOTHER has taken her 11-year-old daughter out of a secondary school after just seven weeks because she says bullying was not being dealt with.
Mother-of-three Wendie Willmott moved her eldest daughter from South Camden Community School (SCCS), in Charrington Street, Somers Town, because a bullying campaign left her daughter ill and depressed, she told the New Journal.
The school admits the girl was bullied, but says it was taking action to deal with it.
The campaign against her child, who Mrs Wilmott, who lives in Somers Town and has asked not to be named, began in her first week this September, when a gang of four boys pulled her hair and grabbed her schoolbag and threw its contents around the classroom.
“That happened almost as soon as she got there,” Mrs Willmott said. “Then she came home with paint all over her uniform. She told her head of year, but one of the boys found out. He hit her and threatened to beat her up.”
Fear of the bullies started to affect her home life and make a previously outgoing child withdrawn. “She was starting to make herself sick in the mornings and crying,” Mrs Willmott said.
An attack by one of the same boys in technology class left her with glue on her mouth and up her nose – all of which was reported to the school authorities.
“I met the head of year twice and spoke to her at least five times,” Mrs Willmott said. “Each time they would say ‘this is not acceptable’. They made notes but they never seemed to do anything to those boys. It just made it worse.”
The boys concerned were spoken to by teachers, who also contacted their parents, and finally put on report.
But the last straw came when one of the bullies took the puppet of the child’s sister that she had made as a project and smashed off its head, saying “this is what I’ll do to your sister”, Mrs Willmott said.
She claimed the school had told her that the boy would no longer be allowed in technology, where several incidents had occurred, with her daughter. She moved her daughter to another school last week.
She said: “They highlight their anti-bullying policy but they do nothing. They don’t deal with bullying, they just ignore it. I asked them – what has to happen to her before you take some action? Does she have to be stabbed?”
Rosemary Leeke, Head of SCCS, stressed that the school had a comprehensive anti-bullying policy and that action had been taken in her case that could have resolved the situation “in time”.
“I’m very clear on a whole range of actions that were taken in this case,” she said. “That included specific action in relation to the specific students who were bullying and at a global level.
“I sympathise with the mother’s position, and I’m sorry that she has felt she had to do what she has. I would have welcomed the opportunity to try and work through the issues with the family, because I wouldn’t have seen us as at the end of the road in dealing with it and I would have been confident that we could have resolved it.
“But bullying is a complex issue that can take time to resolve. I’m satisfied that we’ve done as much as we’ve been able to do so far. ”
While teachers and the school’s attached Police Constable gave talks on mutual respect to the whole year-group, a deputy head was assigned to monitor the case. The strongest sanction applied against the boys was being put on report, and at no time were they removed from Mrs Willmott’s daughter’s class, a decision Ms Leeke defended.
“The reaction was proportionate. Clearly bullying is unacceptable, but in my considerable experience it can take time to resolve.” |
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