Bullying at school

JSawtc

Hi,

My child has been acting very ill-mannered lately which isn't strange for a seven year old but I knew it wasn't exactly him.

He has admitted to me yesterday that there are kids at the school who are annoying him. They physically push him when he asks them not to. What I do not know is if these other kids realise the problems they're causing for my son. They may not know it's really getting to him and he does stand up for himself when he has to, but he knows he should never assault a classmate or anyone for that matter. I am sure if it happened outside the school he would retaliate like a little daemon!

He named two of the kids to me.. but I have a feeling it could be more. I will be asking him other things randomly without sticking to the subject because it annoys him and he would not like me to go into the school.

However I will call the school on Monday anonymously and ask what their policy is on keeping kids safe once they have reported a bulling incident. I will not give out any information until I get a satisfactory answer to the question. If they can not give me one, I'll ask when I can call to get an answer.

I will not go charging into the school demanding justice and threaten legal action or publicity. I will not be seeking revenge either.

However, I do want to know what I can do should the school not act positively about this situation.

Am I allowed get the school to call in the parents of the children who are bulling my child and have a chat?

What legal action can I take if they're not helping my son's problems? This is mainly out of interest and I believe they will do all they can as it is a great school.

Thanks for reading and apologies if I created this in the wrong forum,

- JS

Tom Young

We don't do legal advice here. See charter. Suing a school may not be the way forward.

Try parenting forums on boards.

If you feel you have no option but to seek legal recourse, an anonymous Internet forum should not be where you seek professional advice over something that might be sensitive.

Best if luck and apologies that we can't really help.

Tom

byhookorbycrook

You need to request a copy of the school anti-bullying policy firstly. No need to ring anonymously,you are entitled to look for it and to know what their procedure for dealing with bullying behaviour is.I don't imagine you can insist a school call in another parent,god knows some schools wish they could insist on parents coming in themselves!

Sadly, the balance of power in schools has been shifted to the wrong do-er. Even if a child seriously assaults another child or member of teaching staff, there is little a school can do in terms of excluding a pupil permanently.

JSawtc

I've just been told that my wife went into the school! The child's teacher just said there is nothing wrong.

Hi Tom, Thanks for the reply. I certainly will not even consider it but I just do not want my son to be neglected by the teachers if he is a victim.

Thanks Hook, I shall request that.
I'm pretty sure it's not serious assaults, just pushing and shoving. It's just annoying me that I do not know if those other kids are doing it in a funny friendly way and not realising they're really annoying my son, or if they are actually bullying him.

Tom Young wrote: »

See charter.

Can you help me with that? I have tried.

Corruptable

Just in from the boozer now and saw this thread. It's an issue which I'm familiar with having experience such treatment in school in the past.

Firstly, I cannot provide legal advice per the forum charter, and the fact that I am neither fully qualified nor insured to provide such advice. However, I would argue that the school does owe a duty of care to your child.

If the teacher denies or is not aware of the problem, you should approach the Principal of the School. In my case, that resolved the problem. If that fails, I would advise contacting the Board of Management (who are ultimately legally responsible for the practices and policies of the school).

I should add in one particular case, where the phyical nature of the bullying worsened and took on a form outside of the school grounds, a complaint was made to the Gardai against the young person who was responsible for the bullying and it stopped after the Gardai contacted the individual and family and outlined the possibility of an assault charge being brought against the teenage individual.

As Tom Young has outlined, we would love to help but recourse to legal action should be the very last avenue, due to the cost and stress it brings to all involved (in my opinion). Try the Parenting forum, the Anti-Bullying Centre at Trinity College, and see the Citizen's Information page on Bullying in Schools.

JSawtc

Hey,

Thanks for the advice and links.. that is really appreciated.
I have moved over to the Parenting forum as suggested by Tom Young.