General Chat

Hi sharon My son was bullied at school and I kept him home until the school guaranteed his safety , they usually do this pretty quickly as they don,t want bad publicity, my arguement is that when a child is on school propery they are the schools responsibility, any harm that comes to that child is their fault. If my son had been badly assaulted as yours was I would have got the police involved but only on the understanding that the school would suspend the bullies until the matter had been solved. lorraine

Sharon my sister is a head of department at a secondary school with a 'rough' catchment area. The Head of School and Board of Governors refused to permanently exclude pupils because it resulted in the schools budget being slashed. Teachers as well as pupils were regular visitors to A & E. It might be worth mentioning this solution to your sons school. Sisters school still does not permanently exclude pupils what it does is bring criminal charges against them. This means their parents have to be involved and responsibility passes from the school to police and/or social workers. This policy has been in force for a little over a year now and my sister says the results are noticeable. Pupils are very aware that the school has a zero tolerance of violence, drugs and other anti-social behaviour and a lot of the worst offenders are terrified of their parents. Hope it gets resolved for your son. T.O.R. xx

It's a catch 22 isn't it. If you call the police, as your son fears it could make things worse, though I think it would be very short lived as the school would have to keep a close eye on the situation, and if you don't, they will continue anyway. As far as the school being responsible, yes and no, ultimately it is the parents responsibility to see that thier children are safe and secure, even at school. Unfotunate, but as schools themselves have very little disciplinary power these days, then if does fall to the parents to take over. If it was as serious as it seems, then I would be inclined to call in the police, IF the school fail to do anything about it themselves. I'd only give them a couple of days at the most too.

i want to phone them,, but my son does not want me to as he is scared of what will happen afterwards.. he is very soft so gets picked on and a lot of grief off people, which is why i thought that the school should involve the police as it happened at school, i also thopught they are responsible for our kids while in school hours sharon

In my experience it's the parents who need to involve the police Gwynne

Sharon, I feel you should definately involve the police i know I would, Caz xxxx

hi, i`m just wondering if any one knows what i should do... my 14 yr old was beaten up in school today, spent 4 hours at the primary care centre to get him checked as we thought his nose was broken..... the school advised that it might be a good idea to phone the police but my son i scared that it will make things worse.. i really wanted to know whether the school should involve the police as it happened on school premises in school time....our kids are supposed to be under their care in school hours(or so i thought) so does this mean they should be the ones to involve the police, and it would also mean my son isn`t the GRASS which could cause more problems... is there anyone out there with any knowledge about these things thanx sharon