Mum claims Barossa Valley primary school dismissed death threats against her son as ‘part of a game’

A “heartbroken” mum says a sickening threat was made against her son – but when she told the school, it was fobbed off as “mucking around”.

A “heartbroken” mum says a sickening threat was made against her son – but when she told the school, it was fobbed off as “mucking around”. Picture: Supplied

A desperate mum claims a Barossa Valley primary school dismissed death threats against her son as “part of a game”.

Speaking to the Advertiser, Amanda* said her son had been bullied at Nuriootpa Primary School for “years”.

She said she first noticed her son was feeling “uncomfortable” half way through his Reception year.

But, by the time he was in Year 3, she claims what started off as small incidents between a group of classmates had escalated to violence and death threats – but the school “just waved it off”.

“(A student) point blank threatened my son, saying he’d go home and get his shot gun and shoot him in the face in class,” she said.

Amanda* said her son had been bullied at Nuriootpa Primary School for “years”. Picture: Supplied

“I was horrified (so) I went to school and spoke to the principal at the time and she said, ‘oh he’s just mucking around playing games’.”

Amanda said no action was taken against the student, who was kept in the same classroom as her child.

This, she said, has resulted in him missing multiple days of school.

“Even if they had been playing, this was a direct threat and my child didn’t feel safe.”

“It was enough to scare him not to go back to school for the next few days.

“All up he’s missed quite a lot of school because of bullying.”

Amanda said she spoke to the school’s then-principal and went to a police station following the incident, but never filed an official report.

“All I got were silly little comments,” she said.

“Like, ‘I’ll talk to the student’ or, ‘he’s got a hard life’.

“I feel there was always an excuse but never an outcome.”

She said despite multiple incidents, the student was not suspended or expelled – but rather would occasionally miss lunchtime play to “refocus”.

She said the effect on her son had been “traumatic”.

She said the effect on her son had been “traumatic”. Picture: iStock

“It’s heartbreaking dropping him off to school because you don’t know what’s going to have happened by the time you pick him up.

“I cry half the day just hoping he’s going to be OK.”

Recently, Amanda said new leadership at the school had been making strides to eliminate bullying.

Amanda said she planned to meet with the school in the coming weeks and hoped to push for greater resources to be invested in preventing bullying.

“No child is perfect, my son can cause a bit of mayhem himself.

“But you see so many young people bullied to the point they drop out of school.

“That’s not good for them. They end up so isolated.

“We need to educate our kids, drum it in to them, that bullying is not OK.”

Nuriootpa Primary School principal Vicky Ireland said the school had a “very strong and proactive approach towards managing behaviour incidents”.

“We are particularly vigilant in terms of identifying and preventing any bullying,” she said in a statement.

“We have not had any communication with this parent in relation to this particular report of their child being bullied, however I have reached out to them … to offer our support to the family in this matter.

“We will meet with this parent to ensure any bullying matter is appropriately managed moving forward.

“We have no record of the 2022 incident which was before my time as principal.”

*Names have been changed to protect privacy

Originally published as Mum claims Barossa Valley primary school dismissed death threats against her son as ‘part of a game’