Mollie

When Mollie started secondary school she was understandably nervous, but she had no idea of what she and her family were about to face. Within the first few weeks of starting, she began to feel excluded by some of the girls in her class and year, but soon this exclusion developed into intimidation. Fortunately, Mollie was brave enough to confide in her mother, Kerry, about what was going on at school.

Kerry, an active member of the Parent Teacher Association, decided not only to give her daughter her full support and advice, but also to pay close attention to how the school dealt with her daughter’s predicament. She asked Mollie to explain what had been happening to her teacher, but no action was taken by the school.

By January, the bullying had become so bad that Mollie was excluded from all social activity at school and she felt completely alone and desperate. At this stage, the bullying took an unexpected twist. When Mollie was at home one evening one of the bullies added her as a friend on MSN and began to harass and abuse her online. Mollie was horrified that not only did she need to suffer this indignity at school but now it also infected her life at home.

Once again Mollie explained to the teacher what happened and who the perpetrators were, but the school took no action. In fact, this resulted in heightened agitation in the perpetrators. During one incident in the playground, when Mollie was surrounded by a bunch of girls who were harassing and intimidating her, Mollie hit out. Mollie was reprimanded and was excluded from school for one day, whilst the bullies were never even spoken to.

Whilst Mollie was at home, she received a phonecall from girls at her school, which included death threats, and was recorded by her mother.  Armed with this evidence, Kerry marched into the school and demanded to speak with the head teacher. She explained that Mollie was extremely sorry for hitting back at the bully and knows that it was the wrong thing to do, but that the school needed to take responsibility for the bullying that was going on and do something about it.

Mollie came back to school to an extremely hostile environment. At one stage, the bullies, a group of girls, chased Mollie into the toilets. Mollie sought refuge in a cubicle with the door locked and called her mother from her mobile. Her mother, on hearing the screams and the threats at the end of the phone, called the school on her other phone in a panic. The receptionist transferred her to a voicemail.  She rang back and explained that her daughter was being attacked in the toilets, only to be was transferred to a voicemail again.  Kerry gave up on expecting the school to help so hung up and dialled 999!

The police visited the school and interviewed everyone involved and explained to Kerry that her daughter was now safe.  The head teacher told Kerry to stop wasting police and the school's time.

Later that same week, Mollie was physically attacked again and the police were called to the school for a second time. The school still refused to accept that there was any bullying taking place.

Kerry took Mollie out of school. She was not prepared to send her daughter somewhere where her physical safety was not assured, and spent the next few months trying to find a solution to the problem without success.

Although Mollie wasn’t at school, the bullying continued on MSN. Eventually, Mollie showed her mother. Against most anti-bullying advice, Kerry sat down at the computer and spoke to the bully. Through the ensuing conversations, which went on over days, Kerry was able to explain to the bully the effect of her actions. Eventually, she was able to broker a renewed friendship between the two girls, which had seemed unbelievable only a few weeks previously.

However, the problem with the school remained.  Even when faced with all the evidence: a recording of a phonecall, transcripts from the MSN conversations and finally, a letter written by the bully confessing to bullying, the school still referred to it as "alleged bullying".

Through working with Beatbullying Kerry was able to involve key influencers in this situation, which finally resulted in the local MP stepping in on her behalf.  Kerry also sent Mollie back to the school when every pupil in her year signed a petition to get Mollie back and to bring Beatbullying into the school to run workshops to solve what they call the bullying problem.