Wilderness School: Former student files Supreme Court lawsuit alleging years of bullying by students and teachers

A former private school girl has made shocking claims about a top school, saying her psychological issues were caused by abuse from some staff and students.

A top all-girls school allegedly told students to keep claims of bullying by teachers and peers – ranging from emotional abuse and strangling to 20-person brawls – secret from parents because they “didn’t need to be bothered by it”, a court has heard.

Wilderness School is being sued, in the Supreme Court, by a former student who claims she has developed pronounced psychiatric issues – including “multiple personalities” – due to her time in its care.

In her court papers, the now-adult woman alleges that, over a seven-year period in the 2000s, she was bullied by students who repeatedly:

FORCED her into a barrel at lunchtimes and rolled her around the playground until she was “dizzy and unwell”.

KICKED a crate out from under her while she picked fruit.

OSTRACISED her from group activities while “name-calling”.

THREATENED her life.

Those incidents, she alleges, occurred in full view of 12 teachers – whom she names in the lawsuit – of the school, which costs $334,635 for a reception to Year 12 education.

“In grade 4, while waiting to enter the classroom, (a student) told the applicant she could ‘strangle and kill’ her, before grabbing her around the neck with both hands and strangling her,” her papers allege.

“The teacher turned and saw the strangling incident, before then turning back again and continuing to open up the classroom without addressing the incident.”

The woman alleges her psychological issues soon emerged, with teachers finding her “in a foetal position in the bag room, distressed and unresponsive”.

Wilderness School is being sued by a former student over alleged bullying. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Morgan Sette

Teachers, she alleges, told her mother they “could not stop the bullying” and “suggested she find new friends”.

Those same teachers, she alleges, “threw items” at her and made verbal “put downs”, “laughing in her face” during class and saying she would “never aspire to anything”.

“In grade 6, while paralysed with fear and having a panic attack about having to attend Wilderness, the applicant refused to get out of her mother’s car,” the papers allege.

“A teacher attended the car and said ‘pull yourself together and stop being a baby’ and tried to physically pull the applicant from the car … her mother intervened, and she did not attend school that day.”

Following diagnosis, she alleges, teachers expressed their belief her special needs “would be disruptive to the class”.

When she attended the sick room, she alleges, she was told “you need to hurry up because we need this space in case actually ill children come in”.

“Teachers at Wilderness made it clear to the applicant and her peers that they did not want students to tell their parents about any incidents,” the papers allege.

“Teachers said ‘do not tell your parents if you’re being bullied, they don’t need to be bothered about it.”

Following a 20-student brawl, she alleges, teachers said “we won’t tell your parents what happened if you don’t tell anyone”.

She asks the court to award damages for her “psychiatric morbidity” which, she alleges, a psychiatrist says was “significantly contributed” to by her “abuse at Wilderness”.

In its defence papers, Wilderness says it denies all of the woman’s “vague and embarrassing” allegations, or that it was negligent, or that there is any basis for legal action against it.

The case continues.