I need advice

[Angel533]

My 15year old daughter has type1 diabetes she has had it for 3years,she also has depression and anxiety,She was in a class room last week and had another girl picking on her,she gets this a lot and I don't understand why? She has a heart of gold and is a lovely person,maybe because she is tiny for her age or maybe because she is too scared to stand up for herself,any this resulted in her trying to take her own life by injecting 30 unit's of insulin into herself but the pen got stuck and now she's with Camhs,anyway she was in lesson the other week and had some girl picking up her,it took the teacher 10 minutes to intervene but the girl carried on resulting in the whole class laughing at my daughter, she then walked out of class 2minutes before science, She told a teacher she didn't want to go so they brought the science work to her,to cut a long story short the school then refused to let my daughter on the bus the next day and told her she had a detention she rang me up crying because she didn't know how to get home,we rang a taxi but the school are saying she has to do the detention weather I like it or not,I've said I will take her out of the school and put her in another one so they are saying they will contact the council and I will get a fixed penalty fine,I don't know what I should be doing

[Gambit62]

are you based in the UK? If so would suggest that you track down the local Citizen's Advice Bureau and ask them for advice.

citizensadvice.org.uk/about...

they also have an on-line advice facility now

citizensadvice.org.uk/

It does sound as if the school are not handling the bullying very well at all ... and everyone is probably acting without information being properly shared and making sure that all the facts have been properly documented.

Hope that the CAB can point you in the right direction - or that you can track down an equivalent organisation if you are not based in the UK.

[Angel533 in reply to Gambit62]

Yes im from the uk,i will try them thankyou

[ceejayblue]

First of all bullying can be classed as an assault and if another child is physically touching your child then you can involve the police. If the school are refusing to deal with the bullying and not giving your daughter the pastoral care for her diabetes, then you need to approach the school governors direct by letter or email and copy in the local education authority and put in a formal complaint! The school are derelict in their duty of care to your daughter and the fact she has T1 diabetes makes it worse! Diabetes is classed as a disability in the terms of the Disability Discrimination Act and they are failing her miserably. Keep a diary of what happens and if you feel the need to take her out of school then do so and take her to the GP and get him to write to the school to explain the ramifications of the bullying and then look for another school for her.

I really hope that you can get it sorted for your daughter.

[Angel533 in reply to ceejayblue]

I've rang another school today and they said they would be very reluctant to take her as she's in her last year and I completely understand that but she can't stay at that school,I've spoke to the head teacher who have her the detention for being to upset to go to her next class and refused to let her on the school bus,he said it's their policy and he's not willing to budge on it,he said after he refused to let her on the bus he called her back he then went on to say did I want him to drag her back,I replied by saying you could of but I would be calling the police over an assault, I could believe a grown man could say something like that

[Jay66]

You appear to be doing a lot of your communication with the school either via your daughter or on the phone. You need to go to speak to them face to face. Request an urgent meeting with the Head or Deputy Head and the school's Safeguarding Lead. It would also help a lot if you could bring somebody with you who knows the schooling system, and can act as an adviser and witness for you - one of the school governors would be ideal, or a member of staff who you have trusted in the past.

Make a list of your complaints and what you want to achieve. Your daughter has a right not to be bullied. The school has a responsibility to protect her, to look after both her mental and physical welfare whilst in school and to make sure her learning is not impacted by her illnesses. She may however still have to do a detention if it was given for a just reason.

If the problem is not resolved to your satisfaction having involved the Senior Leadership (Head or Deputy) then approach the school governors. The complaints policy with details of how to do that is on their website (it has to be by law). They have to take your complaint seriously and respond within a certain period of time.

If you withdraw your daughter you will have to find another school willing and able to take her, or provide alternative home schooling provision, which can be done by you or a tutor. Schools can be unwilling to take on children from another school without reason - again, a face to face meeting would help your case.

School kids can be nasty, mean bullies and there is usually no rhyme nor reason as to why they choose to pick on certain victims. Schools are not allowed to simply ignore it or gloss over it - they are obliged to take it seriously. It may be that their understanding of what happened is completely different to yours. Until you have a full open meeting, you won't know what is going on.

[Angel533 in reply to Jay66]

My daughter had the detention for being to upset to go to class,I've spoke to the head and he's not interested but I do have a meeting on friday

[Jay66 in reply to Angel533]

I hope everything goes well on Friday. I do recommend bringing somebody with you as sometimes another person can help in a tense situation.

I am a school governor myself so I am familiar with the idea of attending a parent/headteacher meeting to help out when communication and sometimes trust between the parties has broken down. Headteachers of larger schools can often change their attitudes when the school governors are present.