Adelaide family living in fear after vile late-night phone calls, bullying at St Paul’s College

The parent of a former St Paul’s College student says bullies targeted their family with vile threats and relentless harassment – even after going to the school.

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A parent of a former St Paul’s College student says her family was living in fear after a group of students threatened to kill and rape them.

The mother-of-four told The Advertiser her son was targeted by a group of students in 2022 when was in Year 11 at the Gilles Plains school.

After reporting the bullying to the school, she made the difficult decision to send him to another school, fearing for his safety and wellbeing.

But, she said, the bullying restarted out of the blue in June the following as he was in Year 12, with the same group of students throwing eggs at their home and bashing on the front door several nights in a row.

She said the relentless harassment culminated with one of the students punching her husband in the face when he confronted the group.

The students continued to target the family with vile late-night phone calls, which were made while they were on a school retreat.

“I’m gonna f****** stab you and your f****** whole family you c***,” one of the youths said on a call.

“You’ll be lying in a gutter soon” one person said on the call, while another said “I’ll break your f****** neck”.

The group also targeted other members of the family, saying they were going to rape the mother and her then-14-year-old daughter.

“This brother is gonna rape, f*** your sister and mother. I hope you’re gonna watch them cry you little b****.”

She said the horrific attacks had left a permanent stain on not only her son, but the whole family.

“Your home is supposed to be your safe place and to know that they were coming to our house and making those threats made me feel so uncomfortable,” she said.

“We couldn’t sleep for months and months, I was so impacted by it.”

The family filed a police report on June 19 and again contacted the school.

It was only then that several members of the group were suspended by St Paul’s College, with one student expelled.

The mother, who wished to remain anonymous, said parents were often helpless to protect their children from bullies.

“Parents of victims and victims have nowhere to go, you are really isolated,” she said.

“You report it to the authorities and you just get let down by the system as nothing gets done.

“These kids were not held accountable and they got away with it, and it’s just the victim and their families who suffer.

“We were ignored, we were shoved away and we were silenced.”

In another incident at the school that came to light last week, a parent confronted a 12 year old student accusing them of bullying her child.

She is sharing her story after another horror incident at the same school become public last week when another parent confronted and threatened to “slit” a student’s throat.

In that incident, the parent said last week her daughter was bullied at the $8000-a-year college for a year, before she was told to hang herself.

A spokesman for Edmund Rice Education Australia, which operates St Paul’s College, said the school would not comment on individual students.

“EREA Colleges and our colleges ensure all allegations and safety concerns are responded to as a priority and consistent with our safeguarding policies, student codes of conduct and in compliance with all relevant jurisdictional obligations.,” the spokesman said.

Originally published as Adelaide family living in fear after vile late-night phone calls, bullying at St Paul’s College