Girl bullied by 8yo boy who brought knife to Mount Gambier school too scared to return as parents say school needs support

Parents of a girl bullied by an eight-year-old boy who brought a knife to school and threatened to kill classmates say the city needs more help for kids with complex needs.

Mount Gambier North Primary school. Picture: Facebook.

Fed-up parents say their school needs “better resources” to support children with complex needs after a boy with a history of bullying brought a kitchen knife to school and threatened to kill classmates.

The parents of a seven-year-old girl said their daughter was too scared to go back to school after the boy in her class brought a knife to Mount Gambier North Primary School on Monday.

Asking to be anonymous, the parents said hours before the knife incident, the eight-year-old boy pulled a bus seatbelt around their daughter so hard she burst into tears.

They praised the school for doing its best to manage the boy – who has complex needs – calling the teacher “amazing”.

Police were called to the school about 1.30pm on Monday when the knife was confiscated and the principal informed parents of an “incident” that led to a lockdown.

The girl told The Advertiser on the bus on the way back from an excursion earlier that day the boy – who has a history of bullying her – asked to sit next to her.

“I didn’t want him to and he got mad and went behind me and pulled on my seatbelt,” the girl said. “He pulled it hard and it hurt my tummy, it left a mark.”

She said the SSO on the bus intervened.

The girl, whose mum said used to be “happy, fun and crazy”, sobbed as she said she was “never going back” to school.

“All you want is your kids to go to school, get an education, have fun with their friends, and be in the same state they were when you dropped them off in the morning in the afternoon,” the mother said.

They said the boy has a history of bullying.

“He hurt me with a stick,” the girl said, her mother clarifying he’d “cut” her.

“Last year (he) said to my daughter that she is a fat b****,” the mother said.

The parents – who have children with complex needs themselves – said the school was “very open”, listening to parents of bullied children.

“They do what they can,” the mother said. “(Our daughter’s) teacher is amazing, she tries her best to manage the situation.”

The emails received by parents regarding Monday's incident at Mount Gambier North Primary School. Picture: Supplied

The parents say the teacher – who is again on stress leave – shouldn’t need to worry at work about her students’ safety, and her own.

They called on more than a “generic response” from the Education Department and said the city needed better resources for children with complex needs.

“(He) needs help, maybe mainstream schooling isn’t for him,” the mother said. “There isn’t a school in Mount Gambier for him.”

The family also said they’re disappointed that so far the department’s response to Monday’s incident is to offer “one psychological support session” for parents and students affected.

An Education Department spokeswoman said the student was suspended from school as a consequence of the incident on Monday.

“A safety plan will be put in place as the school continues to work to ensure the safety of the school community and provide this eight-year-old with an education,” she said.

Education Minister Blair Boyer said the school had acted to ensure the safety of students.

“I have asked the department to ensure the school principal has the resources he needs to manage the current situation and that all students and their families feel safe and supported at school,” he said.