Jack

Truanting the only way for bullied teenager to avoid trouble

Jack suffered such persistent verbal and physical bullying that he truanted from school everyday for two months, as he felt it was the only way to avoid his tormentor. When Jack’s mum supported his actions, she was accused of keeping her son from school and threatened with prosecution.

At the peak of his terrible ordeal, when he was fourteen, Jack chose to walk the streets in the rain rather than go to school because he could not face his bully.

Jack said: “I felt like the school didn’t want to accept that I was being bullied.  The bully wasn’t punished and so the bullying just increased. I couldn’t escape it at school and so skiving off seemed like the only option.”

Jack’s ordeal started when he moved school and became popular amongst new friends. One of the group, however, disliked Jack’s new popularity, and began to bully him, pushing him in the corridor, insulting him and threatening him. As the bullying increased, and feeling that no one at the school understood his situation, Jack began to self-exclude. He would pretend to be ill so that he could stay home, and when he did attend registration, he would then leave school to wander the streets or go home.

Almost immediately, Jack’s school addressed the problem of his absence. Unfortunately, however, Jack’s bad reputation meant that the school initially refused to believe he was being bullied. Without understanding his reasons for self-excluding, the headteacher automatically assumed that the problem was behavioural and that Jack was to blame. The school alerted Jack’s mum, Julie, who was astonished when her son confessed that he was truanting because he was being bullied.

Julie immediately contacted the school in an attempt resolve the problem. However, her letters went unanswered and promised meetings never materialised. Instead, she was contacted by her local Education Welfare Officer, and within weeks, received letters accusing her of letting her son be absent from school without reasonable justification.

Julie said: “I was astonished that the education system did not appear to be interested in Jack’s emotional welfare or educational welfare. Jack was angry that he was being bullied at school, but he was more frightened of what his reaction would be if he stayed in school to endure the bullying.”

Jack continued: “The bullying got so bad that I wanted to hit back, but I knew that I could end up being excluded for fighting.  I wanted to go to school but I didn’t want to get into trouble and upset my mum.”

Jack and his mum feel that they did not receive the support from Jack’s school or education welfare officer that they needed to overcome Jack’s problem with the bully. He had no history of truanting from school, and, when truanting, chose to behave in a way that avoided all trouble, either by isolating himself on the streets or by staying home alone. Indeed, when the school refused to intervene and stop the bullying, Julie fully supported her son’s responsible decision to remove himself from a very difficult situation.

However, during Jack’s ordeal, Beatbullying provided extensive support for his family. The charity advised Julie throughout, and offered constant guidance for the family when liaising with the school.  

Not surprisingly, Jack’s education began to suffer because he was not attending lessons.  He missed his mock exams, and although he continued to state that he wanted to go school if the bullying could be resolved, the school refused to let him re-sit the exams.

Jack said: “The welfare officer didn’t seem to care that I was being bullied, she was only interested in getting me back to school. The school didn’t understand that I wanted to attend lessons, but didn’t want to be in a situation where I had to fight the bully.”

For four months, Julie, with Beatbullying’s support, continuously pushed Jack’s school to recognise that her son was being bullied, so that the problem could be dealt with and he could return to class.  Eventually, the school grudgingly accepted the situation and arranged a meeting between Jack, the bully, and the school, in order to implement a strategy to resolve the problem.  Even so, Julie still felt that the headteacher wanted to blame Jack, more than the bully, for the problem.

Julie said: “The headteacher told me that Jack has a problem with anger, implying that there could be no other reason for the bullying. It seemed as though the school were taking the easy way out by blaming Jack, for then they didn’t have to deal with the problem.”

Jack is back at school now and has been able to catch up with all the schoolwork missed. The bully has been warned to stay away from Jack, who has been moved to the other side of the year.