Bullied teen at Rosebud Secondary College ‘too traumatised’ to leave home

A father claims Rosebud Secondary College has a “toxic culture” of bullying after his 14-year-old daughter was physically assaulted and verbally tormented by students.

Rosebud Secondary College. Picture: Google

A father says his 14-year-old girl is “too traumatised” to leave the house after being physically and verbally assaulted at a Mornington Peninsula school.

Craig Thomson claims the school, Rosebud Secondary College, did “next to nothing” to address the bullying and enabled a “toxic culture” among students.

He says his daughter, in Year 8 at the time, was physically assaulted and verbally tormented by other students who repeatedly told her to take her own life last year.

She now suffers from severe anxiety, leaving Mr Thomson with no choice but to homeschool his daughter.

“In Year 6 she was a school captain. And now I can’t get her out the front door,” he said.

He said other examples of harmful behaviour at the school include female students being pressured to send boys nude photos.

“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. You don’t have to dig deep to see there’s a really toxic culture at that school – it’s well-known down here,” he said.

Mr Thomson said his daughter and her bullies were placed in the same class last year, despite agreeing with the school previously that this would not be the case.

“There was one boy in particular who was detailing graphic ways she should kill herself, and they put her in the same class as him, how is that safe?,” he said.

“They said it was an accident and apologised for the mistake, but then refused to make any changes.”

Craig Thomson claimed the school enabled a “toxic culture” among students. Picture: Supplied

The bullying then intensified, with groups of students beginning to target and stalk his older daughter who was also at the school, he says.

“The boys approached (her) on the school grounds and started asking where my younger daughter was, why she wasn’t coming into school and when she would be back,” he said.

He said he had no other option then to pull his younger daughter out of school and homeschool her.

“The school knew our family had a history of mental health illness. They knew that these boys were making jokes about suicide, and they still let us go through that,” he said.

“It was a real attack on our family.”

Mr Thomson applied to the Education Department for an exemption to enrol her in the next closest school, Dromana Secondary College, as it was outside his catchment zone.

“It took them nine months to complete a review on my complaint,” he said.

“By that time, I’d already enrolled her into homeschooling. And quite frankly, I wouldn’t be in a hurry to enrol her in another state school after what our family has experienced.”

A Department of Education spokesperson said: “Rosebud Secondary College does not tolerate bullying in any form and has in place a range of strategies and resources to support the health and wellbeing of all students.”

Recent research from Bully Zero shows nearly three quarters (72 per cent) of Australian students surveyed said they had been bullied before.

Students said the most common place for bullying to occur was at school, outside of the classroom.