Looking for a placement for my very bright, autistic 6 year old who has left her current school due to physical bullying by older children. She’s working above her age, academically but needs extra help with things like encouragement to eat.
We are not considering state because of class sizes being too big. TIA
I’m asking about this because I have 3 young adult children and one who is 6. When my older kids were little, any bullying was nipped in the bud right away. But from speaking to other parents in other schools at this time, many of them do seem to be dealing with unresolved bullying.
My daughter has had an absolutely horrible year 1, thanks to two particular, older girls who have been physically hurting her and putting their hands on her. Examples;
Pinching under the table , scratching, hitting, pushing, snatching things off her and whispering about her. On one occasion, I witnessed the whispering at drop off. Sometimes I’ve seen fingertip bruising and scratches on her.
I have complained first to the teacher, then to the head and I feel like they don’t care because the only consequences given to the bullies are to say ‘don’t do that’ and tell them to apologise.
This has been going on since February. I have kept things in writing. If my dd reports to me that they did something, the school twists it into something else.
For example, Dd said one of the girls grabbed her by the chest and manhandled her out of the play area. The school twisted it into ‘oh no what happened was that a child tried to sit next to dd she must have misinterpreted it.
Another time, dd had a scratch on her hand and said a book was snatched off her. School changed it into ‘they both reached for the same book at the same time’. What’s actually happening is that these girls wait for dd to pick up something that interests her and then snatch it to be spiteful.
The teacher has repeatedly told me that it’s normal for children this age to pinch and hit each other sometimes. I told her ‘no it’s not normal for 6,7 and 8 year olds to be deliberately hurting each other. ‘ it makes me very angry that she thinks this is acceptable.
I had a meeting with the head teacher and I said that I would expect consequences for this behaviour such as telling the children’s parents and some sort of punishment. She agreed with me but was very wishy-washy, says she would put the meeting in writing but didn’t. Instead, when my daughter is scared to go out at playtime it’s suggested that she can stay in the quiet room when she’s not the one doing nasty things!
Needless to say, I am not sending my daughter back to the school. She had a lovely school report, saying that she is kind and caring and is a loved member of the school. You could have fooled me - why don’t they protect her, then??
Other children have also left due to bullying but I only found this out, recently.
Does anyone have any insight into why some schools try to pretend that bullying isn’t happening? It’s literal gaslighting.
Thanks if you read to the end of this long post!!
And also some strange drawings that MJ did. I saw these pictures once but I can’t seem to find them…