Adelaide parents withhold Seymour College fees after response to daughter’s escalating bullying

The parents of a nine-year-old girl say she has been bullied relentlessly at a top all-girls private college – and have been left astonished by the school’s response.

An Adelaide parent is unhappy with how Seymour College responded to concerns about his daughter being bullied. Picture: Dean Martin

The parents of a nine-year-old girl who say she has been bullied relentlessly at an elite all-girls private college are astonished by the school’s response to their calls to “greater protect” their daughter.

Martin Wilson* says his daughter has endured years of severe bullying including being told she would be “stabbed with a knife”, experiencing ritualised social exclusion and twice having her glasses broken as they were slapped off her face at the $20,000-a-year Seymour College in Glen Osmond.

He said his daughter continued to deteriorate with increased anxiety and a drop in self-esteem – particularly as he claims the school lacked “compassion and empathy” while “failing to ensure her (his daughter’s) safety”.

The letter from the school claiming Mr Martin’s letters asking the school to be more “accountable”, “empathetic” and “compassionate” had “not been respectful”.

“We had watched the light in our little girl dim,” Mr Wilson told The Advertiser.

“The perpetrator’s mother even got involved and was intimidating my daughter.

“After she was threatened to be stabbed – the only direction was that both she and the girl who did it, sit down to write a reflection.

“One day she had her lunchbox stolen and was kicked around the hall, then into bushes. When (my daughter) told the teachers they told her she was lying.”

Eventually he wrote to the school saying after the complaint “the bullying has not only persisted but, in some instances, has escalated”.

In protest, he said he had also stopped paying fees – meaning he had paid just $12,000 of the over $20,000 he was supposed to pay.

The school’s response outlining Mr Martin’s concerns which it dismissed without interviewing him or his daughter.

“We are prepared to pay the outstanding fees once the school demonstrates true leadership and accountability in relation to our daughter’s wellbeing,” he wrote in the letter.

The letter to Mr Wilson from the school, seen by The Advertiser, spans three pages, but does not directly address the issue of the child’s safety.

“I am satisfied that appropriate systems are in place to ensure concerns are addressed appropriately, efficiently, and effectively going forward,” it says.

The rest of the letter, encompassing some six paragraphs, is dedicated to the issue of Mr Martin’s partial non-payment fees and allegations that Mr Martin’s “communication with the school has not been respectful”.

He said that he had got agitated at times with school staff – but was never abusive.

He said the school’s response “dismissed” his daughter’s welfare.

A spokeswoman for Seymour College said: “As a leading school for girls, the wellbeing of every Seymour College student is absolutely paramount and our staff are trained to comprehensively and appropriately deal with any and all matters of this nature.

“As such, whenever concerns are raised by students or members of our school community, they are always investigated and addressed by the College.”

*Names have been changed.

Originally published as Adelaide parents withhold Seymour College fees after response to daughter’s escalating bullying