SA Catholic school refuses to expel student despite claims of death threats and relentlessly bullying

A South Australian private all-girls school has told a desperate mum they will not expel a student she claims threatened to kill her child because the student’s parents ‘pay the school fees’.

A mother claims she was told by an all-girls private school they would not expel the student she says threatened to kill her daughter because the student’s parents pay the school fees.

Amanda Brown*, who sent her daughter Sarah* to all-girls Catholic school Our Lady of The Sacred Heart (OLSH) College at Enfield for high school because Sarah “loved the school uniforms” and needed extra attention having been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and ADHD, has been left furious by the treatment of her daughter.

“She’s not the same 12-year-old from the first day of high school, she’s a completely different child and seeing her go through that transformation was just heartbreaking,” Ms Brown told The Advertiser.

What was meant to be an exciting experience for Sarah, who doesn’t want to be identified, quickly turned into a “horrendous” nightmare according to the heartbroken mother.

Ms Brown said her then 12-year-old daughter was subjected to physical and emotional abuse, countless abusive messages and phone calls and death threats from a girl at the school.

“She’s had enough to deal with in her young life, she’s dealt with more than any person should deal with in a lifetime and the school knew that … the school had a responsibility,” she said.

Sarah, now 13, was subjected to rude remarks including the girl telling her nobody loved her, that she should die and making animal sounds at her, according to Ms Brown.

The bullying became so unbearable Sarah resorted to self harm to cope.

According to Ms Brown, the student at one point approached Sarah during a sports lesson to show her that she’d written ‘#killsarah’ on her arm.

“We got into the car and she (Sarah) broke down crying, she said ‘mum, she said that horrible thing on her arm but before that she told me to go kill myself’,” Ms Brown said.

“This girl would often say to her, ‘you should just kill yourself’.”

Following the incident, the girl was told not to return to school, however when Sarah returned to OLSH the next day, the girl was there.

“I was like, are you serious? This child has threatened my kids life, told her to go kill herself and she’s back the next day,” Ms Brown, who decided to speak out after reading Charlotte’s Wish, said.

Ms Brown said she was called by a staff member to discuss the incident and told her the student wouldn’t not be expelled because students at OLSH were not expelled.

“My response to that was, ‘at the cost of my daughter being safe at school, are you serious?’,” Ms Brown said.

“Then it was decided that she would be suspended … and that she was going to be slowly reintroduced to the community but they said a just cause of action was to move the girl out.”

Whenever Sarah would see the girl she would hyperventilate in panic and at recess and lunch, she would have to scan the grounds to discover where she was to avoid her. Ms Brown also said the school was forced to block the ability for the girls to message each other to ensure abusive messages couldn’t be sent.

When the principal finally made time to have a meeting with Mr and Ms Brown over the phone.

That is when the principal informed Ms Brown that the school would not be expelling the student because the student’s parents pay the fees.

“You know when you have a moment of, ‘are you for real?’,” Ms Brown said.

“She’s never going to escape this, it’s never going to change … she can’t continue doing this every day, she’s lost weight, she’s self harmed, she’s withdrawn.”

Ms Brown noticed her daughter withdraw by week three of the first term of school and the friendship became “toxic”.

“This girl started messaging her ‘you’ve got to answer your phone, if you don’t answer your phone I’m going to hate you, I’m going to destroy you’,” Ms Brown said.

“She got 60 text messages within 20 minutes and about 30 phone calls.”

After three terms at OLSH and the meeting with the school, Ms Brown decided to pull her daughter out of the school immediately.

She is enjoying her new school so much more.

“She finds it hard to make friends because she doesn’t trust anybody, even at the new school,” Ms Brown said.

“This (OLSH) was a private school, they always said, we’re here to make sure your daughter’s safe and we grow your daughter into a beautiful human being, but instead it’s a culture of bullying.”

The Advertiser contacted OLSH and received the following response:

“The college is fully committed to its duty of care for all students. We provide an environment where the safety and wellbeing of every student is our highest priority. Bullying is not tolerated in our community, and we work closely with families to ensure any concerns about a child’s wellbeing are thoroughly addressed in line with all relevant policies and procedures.”

OLSH refused to answer questions about whether they have expelled students, whether they have checked on the wellbeing of Sarah and Ms Brown following their departure from the school.

They also refused to provide their policies and procedures as it pertains to bullying.

*Names have been changed to protect privacy