The family of a nine-year-old Kalgoorlie boy have taken out a violence restraining order to protect him from a fellow student.
They claim the other student has been verbally and physically bullying their son on school grounds.
The Weekend West understands the boy was told to kill himself and suffered other abuse in separate incidents over a long time.
The boy has missed school because of his fear of contact with the alleged bully, whom the family say is a considerably bigger student.
A letter to The Kalgoorlie Miner newspaper from the boy's grandmother says the verbal abuse concerned her most.
"When another student tells a class member he should kill himself, who's got the problem," she wrote.
"This young student took to spending recess and lunchtime in places where there was a teacher on duty because he felt unsafe to venture into the playground."
The order prohibits the alleged bully from coming within 3m of the boy and behaving in an intimidatory, offensive or emotionally abusive manner towards him.
It is believed the alleged bully's family has appealed against the interim order, with a hearing set for June 18.
The smaller child's family claim the school was told of incidents many times. His mother said she even spoke to the Goldfields Education Office before going to police.
"Almost every term I hear of families who are removing their children from the school because they are not confident they are in a safe environment," she said.
"Bullying is clearly rife and the administration is clearly not doing anything about the problem."
Education office regional executive director Ken Perris said the school was aware of the order.
But he said its investigations found no evidence of behaviour that would warrant a violence restraining order. He said the school was surprised an interim order was granted because it was not approached for evidence.
Mr Perris said that despite this, the school sought to abide by the order and put the student in a class away from the alleged bully.
He said this was an appropriate response given the outcome of the school's investigations.
The principal was also concerned the child was missing important schooling and reiterated to the parents that he would do everything possible to provide a safe environment for the boy.
Mr Perris was confident the school was a safe environment and that it managed bullying and inappropriate behaviour effectively.
No comments:
Post a Comment