A mom of a 12-year-old is feeling extremely frustrated towards Worcester-Oos Primary School after countless attempts to report bullying at the school have allegedly fallen on deaf ears.
According to Inge (her surname is being withheld on her request to avoid any harassment), the bullying started last year and has carried on to this year. It has also got so bad her child is suicidal.
She said: “The whole situation has been emotionally taxing on our family, because it feels as if the school, which is meant as a safe haven for our kids, does not want to listen to our cry.”
In the meantime, the school is denying any knowledge of the bullying incidents, after Standard reached out to it with questions about the allegations.
The mother shared that the alleged bullying started in October after her daughter received a letter from one of the bullies asking her if she was scared of the other girls.
“She responded ‘no’ to the letter, because she did not have reason to be scared of them because they were in higher grades and she did not know them.”
Later on, during break time at the school, she was pushed around in the bathroom by a group of about 10 girls.
“She came home with bruises, and when I asked her what happened she then told me what she had gone through at school.”
What followed was a series of attempts from Inge to get the issue resolved with the school as well as the parents of the alleged bullies.
She said she sent a message to the child’s class teacher at the time to request a meeting with the principal. Instead, a meeting was scheduled with the school’s disciplinary head.
“The school disciplinary head, instead, told me ‘my child is a problem’ and was not interested in sorting out the issue at hand.”
A week later, in November, Inge said she went back to the school and requested to speak to the principal, who then referred her to the school’s disciplinary head once again.
After the many failed attempts to resolve the bullying issue at the school, Inge even went to the home of one of the alleged bullies to try and sort the issue out, but the meeting turned into a verbal altercation.
Standard sent several enquiries to the school and contacted it with specific questions, with no-one admitting having any knowledge of the alleged bullying at the school, or that Inge had ever visited it.
This was reinforced by a statement issued by the school’s SGB chairperson, Tertius Griesel that the school had received no complaints whatsoever about bullying.
“Although neither the school nor the SGB are aware of this specific complaint, the parent is encouraged to visit the school.”
He further said the school’s disciplinary committee investigated all complaints in accordance with its code of conduct and policy.
“We do not approve of misconduct, not at the school or in the broader community.”
Griesel’s statement was further shared on the school’s groups, and the parent said she would once again seek to get an appointment with school authorities.
