A bullying dossier including accounts of children feeling suicidal has been compiled by parents at a Fife school which has hired a second campus cop.
Three mums behind the move say firmer action is needed to address the scale of the problem at Levenmouth Academy.
Dozens of statements they have collected from fellow parents, grandparents and pupils include harrowing stories of children feeling suicidal or self-harming and of vicious assaults.
They also tell of pupils missing school, too terrified or anxious to return after being relentlessly taunted or attacked.
The mums – who do not want to be named to protect their own families – appealed for people to share their experiences of bullying and how it was handled on the Levenmouth Academy Liaison Group Facebook page which they run.
And they were flooded with scores of shocking and distressing tales.
We have included excerpts from just a few of the statements they received, with names removed, throughout this article.
“When someone tells me go kill ur self it hurts to hear that. I am scared being at school.”
One of the mums claims the number of pupils at Levenmouth – almost 1,700 – makes it impossible for staff to keep control in what is the eighth largest local authority school in Scotland.
Levenmouth Academy was created in 2016 by the merger of two high schools and she said: “They should never have put Buckhaven and Kirkland together. It’s the size of the school that is problem.
“It’s out of control.
My son is in S3 and has been getting bullied so badly he doesn’t want to attend school anymore. If he does attend he skips classes to avoid getting bullied.”
“There are too many children and not enough staff.”
The bullies, she claimed, know where CCTV cameras are and that they won’t be recorded targeting victims in toilets and stairwells.
But she added: “They do it in front of teachers because the teachers’ hands are tied and they can’t do anything about it.”
Sending her [my daughter] there was causing her anxiety and mental health to decline so bad. Fast forward six months and she’s in a new school with a lot less pupils, the teachers have more control and she’s so much happier.”
Earlier this year, we were shown 20 videos allegedly of attacks on pupils at the Buckhaven school which the parent who had gathered them claimed were a fraction of those circulating.
The mums also blame the anti-bullying policy which is based on Scottish Government guidance promoting positive relationships and discouraging exclusion.
One said: “They are trying to keep them [bullies] in school and teach them it’s wrong but how are they teaching them it’s wrong by keeping the bullies in there to bully more people?
My friend’s son got bullied for years. Kids would video boys fighting him and seen the teachers just standing there shouting at them to stop. Teachers can’t touch them.”
“What about the victims’ right to education? Why are they not seen as important enough to be kept in school?”
My daughter attends Levenmouth Academy and is autistic. The bullying she has had to deal with has left her traumatised, suffering more with anxiety and fear and wondering why and what she has done wrong.”
Another of the mums said: “They exclude the child that is getting bullied. Not from the school but by isolating them in classes or moving them to another class instead of moving the bully, so they then lose friendships and bonds they have made in their classes.
“You’re not allowed to punish a child, but technically they are punishing the victims.”
She said to them [staff] ‘it’s not I don’t feel safe, it’s I know I’m not safe.'”
She also said parents reported seeing little action when they complain about their children being targeted, until they keep their child off and are questioned about their poor attendance.
The mums want to see a shift in the anti-bullying policy to take a firmer stance towards perpetrators and a more robust response to reports.
He said that he doesn’t want to be here anymore as the mental abuse he is getting he thinks he can’t get anything right.”
Levenmouth Academy is one of many secondary schools across Scotland to have a campus cop.
In May head teacher Ruth McFarlane told parents that there are now two community police officers based in the school.
I have been getting bullied for five years on and off…I was hurting myself, I had suicidal thoughts and I was depressed so badly I had to try end it, I just didn’t want to go back or be here because nobody was helping me or listening.”
The second was employed recently using Pupil Equity Funding (PEF), money issued directly to schools to help close the poverty-related attainment gap.
Ms McFarlane said the intention was to develop an educational programme for delivery by the officers in personal and social education (PSE) classes.
My daughter had to spend her break times in the toilet to hide from [a] girl and sometimes [the girl] would bring her friends and kick the doors of the toilet where she was…At the end I decided that enough was enough and the only way was to move out of the area.”
Among the purposes of this, she said, was to help young people protect themselves in “difficult peer group situations” in and out of school and to teach them about the risks and consequences of physical assault.
In response to the bullying dossier, she said: “Bullying of any kind is not tolerated in our school.
“We have policies and procedures in place to deal with bullying and have invested significantly in interventions to better support young people.
I eventually took my daughter out the school and put her to another, [she] was getting bullied on a daily basis…[she] ended up self-harming because of it.”
“Mental health is a priority for us, and we are fortunate to have a wide range of partners working in the school to support young people and families.
“Young people are co-designing our approach to bullying and all S1-6 personal, social and health education (PSE) classes this week have been evaluating the bullying policy to ensure that their voice is strongly represented.”
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