Charlotte’s Wish documentary sparks massive online response

The release of The Sunday Telegraph’s documentary, Charlotte’s Wish, has sparked an outpouring of grief and personal bullying stories from readers. Here’s what they said.

In light of the two-month investigation by The Sunday Telegraph, the exclusive Charlotte’s Wish documentary has struck a chord with readers who feel “let down” by schools and their treatment of their students’ mental health.

The investigation was launched following the suicide of 12-year-old Charlotte O’Brien who was tragically bullied and her dying wish was for her parents to raise awareness about the crisis.

It uncovered a troubling patchwork of school-based policies, skills and enforcement to support families as bullying evolved and a tech-driven wave leaves victims with no escape.

Interviews conducted by The Sunday Telegraph revealed a disturbing theme of parents being turned away by schools when they sought help for their bullied children.

So much so, since the release of the documentary on Sunday, readers have flocked to the comments to share their own personal experiences with children who also suffered at the hands of online and schoolplace bullying.

“I have been through this with two daughters,” Melissa commented on The Daily Telegraph website.

“Thankfully they are adults and ok now. We we totally let down by school staff. Never forget this is on the schools (sic) watch and you cannot tell me they don’t know what’s happening.”

Melissa said her message was to remove children from schools altogether and “don’t make them attend and suffer”.

“Just remove your kids from these bullies that seem to never face the music,” she said.

Another commenter, Monica, questioned that if the bullies can be identified by the victim, “why aren’t they punished or at least questioned”.

“There is something very wrong with what the perpetrators are doing so why are schools seemingly afraid to confront (them),” Monica said.

“They need to be called out.”

Twelve-year-old Charlotte O’Brien suicided after relentless bullying.

Another commenter, Julia, replied “they’re even still at the school instead of being expelled”.

David also left a comment, saying his child “after months of horrendous bullying” was told by the school to “go home and write about it”.

“Put all the incidents down and feelings etc,” he said.

“Then both had to sit down while our child read this out. It took so much courage.”

He said the school said “that’s it. Move on” and there was no punishment for the bully.

Linda wrote: “Social media is almost exclusively THE number one reason we have articles like this. The irony? It’s anything but ‘social’. Created a world of people with a lot to say behind the safety of their keyboard. Such a sad, sad world.”

Other commenters shared similar sentiment, saying schools needed to step up and also shamed the government.

The long list of experiences are a worrying trend as the topic of school place bullying comes to a head.

Read all the comments here.