Violence at school

[Stew2017]

All,

I'd appreciate a few pointers please as I've no idea what sort of solicitor I'd need or what sort of outcomes are even vaguely possible.

My child was seriously assaulted at school (multiple blows from two assailants). Head smashed into a wall repeatedly.

It's now year 5 of a sustained series of assaults spanning two schools.

The school refused to exclude the assailant.

The school refused to provide the CCTV of the assault.

What I'd like is the TA they've assigned for a term to the primary assailant to be a permanent feature of their education. This was the solution on the previous school. Or for them to end this nightmare and exclude the bully.

The school won't engage in discussion, and are being very secretive of what action if any that they're taking.

Are there any legal options open to us, as we're at our wits end with it? Is it anything the courts would consider and what sort of outcomes could be achievable?

[PallasAthena]

Did you report the assault to the police?

[Stew2017]

Yes, but their view is that it's something the school will deal with.

Unfortunately the school aren't really taking it all that seriously.

They won't say what they've done but from what my child said, they introduced a 4 day suspension and assigned a ta until the end of term.

My child is 12 as is the assailant.

A short suspension isn't going to change their behaviour, which is going to resume as soon as the ta departs. This has been going on since before the pandemic and it's not the first suspension.

[PallasAthena]

I'm assuming you are in England and it's a state school.

Presumably your son and the other children involved in the incident are in Year 7, their first year in this (secondary) school? When you say "It's now year 5 of a sustained series of assaults spanning two schools" did your son and those bullying him all go to the same primary school and then all transfer to the same secondary school? What had the Primary school done about the bullying?

You mention a TA being assigned to the main assailant in primary school. So I would guess he has special educational needs of some sort - it's unlikely that the primary school assigned a TA solely to control his behaviour. Secondary schools usually have fewer TAs than Primary schools so I'm not surprised they are unwilling to give the assailant a full time TA.

I'm not clear what formal steps you have taken to ask the school to take your concerns for your son's safety seriously.

You need to follow the school's formal Complaints Policy.. It's on their website. These vary from school to school but typically you escalate it through stages

1. Raising concerns with form teacher/head of year.

2. Put in a formal written complaint to the Headteacher/Principal

3. A formal complaint to the school's governing body/academy trust

All state schools must have an anti-bullying policy, it will be on the school's website. Read it to see if the school has followed its own policy. If not then failure to follow thei own policy can be included in your complaint. However policies can be rather general and bland and it often isn't easy to work out whether the school has followed it.

There is little point in focussing on what you want the school to do to the assailants. As you have discovered the school will not discuss the other pupils with you because both safeguarding and data protection law prevent them disclosing information about other children to you. Your focus should be on the safeguarding and H&S risks your son is exposed to and their duty of care to him, and what the school is going to do to protect him and to prevent his education/learning being disrupted.

If you make a data protection request for the CCTV they should provide you with this after they have obscured the faces/identities of the other people seen in the CCTV. Other schools that I am familiar with are able to obscure faces in this way so it can be done. Their failure to do so can form part of your complaints.

Did your son need medical help after the assault? Were there signs of physical injury? How have they been recorded if you need them for evidence? Did you take him to your GP? Were the injuries photgraphed? If the only evidence of what happened is what your son has told you then you need the CCTV as evidence of its seriousness. Both the school's apparent lack of urgency and the police's refusal to act suggest to me that they may not believe it was a serious assault.

Schools have a duty of care towards all their pupils and it is possible that if a school has failed in its duty you could take legal action against it for breach of that duty. I'm not a lawyer, you would need to consult an education law specialist, but any such legal action could be lengthy and stressful for you and your son. It's not enough just to show he has been bullied and the school haven't stopped the bullying.

There are a number of education charities that can offer specialist advice and support. Worth talking to them before consulting lawyers. Search for "support for bullied children england" and you will find the main ones.

[Stew2017]

Yes, year 7, same primary school then same secondary.

The primary suspended the assailant for a week then assigned a ta to accompany them for the next 2 years.

Yes, the assailant is SEN. The schools are rightly cagey about specifics, but it's autism and ADHD.

The schools post complaints view is that they're working through their anti bullying policy framework and I should expect this to take time. By time they mean my child enduring further assaults.

The policy is so vague they could be following it or not. Either way it isn't going to work.

We've done the suspension and counselling thing before and the assaults continue. The only realistic answer is exclusion or a permanent ta, again.

Medical advice was required with hospital treatment recommended the day after due to NHS delays. By then they were already back in school.

This is the first occasion the injuries have been bad enough that I've involved the police. The officer has committed to arrest and sending a file for prosecution of the incident is repeated but wants the school to deal with it this time. The school aren't dealing with it beyond a short suspension and counselling, which cannot hope to fix the underlying issues.

I'll have a look at the charities thing, as I'd not thought of that.

Refocusing on the legal aspects, what kind of outcomes can result from going to court for breach of duty of care? Are judgements only going to be financial awards? I'm not interested in money. Or could they compel the school to take further action? Beyond exclusion or the ta to physically segregate them, I don't see an end to this. I'm open to any ideas they have, but soft options and wishful thinking have failed over and over.

I've patiently worked through processes and procedures for years and they've achieved nothing. I need to find a way to refocus the school on outcomes not processes.

[Stew2017]

Thank you both for your help and advice.

[islandgirl]

If you have followed the complaints policy for the school the next step is the LEA. They will also have policies. Follow those. This may well lead to a hearing with the LEA, you and the head - I have chaired them in the past.