‘Nobody was helping’: Parents expose major bullying concerns at Brassall State School

Angry parents have taken to social media to expose rampant bullying issues at an Ipswich primary school.

Parents at an Ipswich school are appealing for the school to take action against what they say is a rampant bullying issue.

The calls were started after one parent of a student at Brassall State School shared his horror story on a local Facebook page. Other parents flooded his post with more than 100 comments of similar stories.

Dina Kennedy told The Queensland Times she started noticing bullying issues at Brassall State School when her son was in Year 3 last year, but “this year it’s progressively become a lot worse”.

“[My son’s] been hit several times. The bullying’s been so bad at stages where he’s left the school grounds,” she said.

She said her son “had a child severely punch him” and the child responsible was suspended for the rest of the week – but noted that on many other occasions, very little was done.

“There was one incident where my son in lunch break … A child came up to him and rubbed [her son’s] head in his groin … He couldn’t really push him away or get up. Nothing was done about that to my knowledge.”

Ms Kennedy said she had attempted to work with the school to resolve the issues, but was ultimately looking to move her son to another school.

“It’s just a joke … Nothing’s working, nothing’s getting done, no one’s fixing anything,” she said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Education said that “like all Queensland state schools, Brassall State School is committed to providing a safe, respectful and disciplined learning environment”.

“Any situation that threatens the safety and wellbeing of students, staff or others in our school communities is treated extremely seriously, and dealt with as a matter of priority, in line with the school’s Student Code of Conduct (SCC).”

“Students and caregivers with concerns about bullying or misconduct are encouraged to speak with their school principal in the first instance.”

Brassall State School. Picture: Nicola McNamara

A mother at the school by the name of Tash, said she started receiving messages from her son’s Year 4 teacher two months ago, saying her son was angry all the time.

She said it seemed uncharacteristic for her son, and when she asked him about it, he told her he was having trouble with another student.

“He was having arguments with this boy, he was making him angry and upset and nobody was helping him,” said Tash.

“I went to pick him up one day … I could just see. I said to my friend ‘he’s not happy’.”

Tash said her son was having issues with one student in particular.

“The boy was on the schoolyard … and he was threatening him.”

One day, Tash said her son came home and burst into tears.

“He said that this boy had held him down while he punched him in the head over and over, kicked him in his private parts,” Tash recounted.

“He said ‘Mummy, I tried to get him off me but I couldn’t, I wasn’t strong enough’ – and that broke me.”

Tash said the boy was suspended after the incident, but claimed that ultimately the school’s response was to tell students to stay out of the bully’s space.

“They were taking my kid away and making this other kid think that what he was doing was okay. It was just making it worse”.

Parents Mark and Natasha Peters said their son was witness to this incident, and that the same boy had threatened their son that “if you don’t let me beat your friend up, I’m going to cut your balls off with a knife”.

They explained they were planning to move their son to a different school because of the psychological effects the bullying had had.

“When he realises he’s got to go to the school the next day … He starts acting up, he doesn’t want to go to bed, refuses to go to sleep,” said Mr Peters.

Mrs Peters said that “when you actually force him to go to school, he’s got the shakes, his eyes are bugging out of his head, the anxiety’s through the roof”.

Both Tash and Mr and Mrs Peters said they weren’t satisfied with the school’s response to the bullying.

“Not once were we called by that school to tell us what was going on … All of the school is refusing to hear us,” said Mr Peters.

Tash said she hadn’t been contacted either.

“I should have been told that my son had been in this situation or at least given the opportunity to talk to him.”

Mrs Peters said when they saw the other parents’ comments on the Facebook post earlier this week, they were “gobsmacked that it wasn’t just us that were going through it”.

School bullying, generic. Picture: News Limited

A mum by the name Stephanie was one of those commenters, and told The Queensland Times her son had had difficulties in Year 1 last year, including an incident on the oval where two students had tackled him to the ground and punched him.

Stephanie said a teacher informed her what happened, but had told her son was “being mean and calling them names” and that the teacher had made her son apologise in front of the whole class.

She said her son had also experienced issues with racism, and that another student had told him “nobody wants to play with you because you have dark skin, my dad said I’m not allowed to play with n*****s”.

“This was brought to the teacher’s attention and the child received one-day lunchtime detention for racial remarks,” said Stephanie.

“It was disgusting and it got to a point where my child didn’t want to go to school, so I removed him end of last year and put him in private schooling.”

Another mother whose son started prep this year said “within the first week of him being there, another boy he’d become friends with was starting to get rough with him right in front of me”.

“This child would punch him in the back, rip his bag off him and throw it, get in his face and threaten him,” she said.

“The most recent incident happened when my son was playing with his friends, he was laying on the ground pretending to be a zombie and another child ran up to him and stomped on his face.”

Department of Education spokesperson said “Brassall State School has a range of support staff available to assist students, including nine inclusion teachers and teacher aides, four engagement and wellbeing teachers and teacher aides, a social worker and a Guidance Officer.”

“As a Positive Behaviour for Learning school, Brassall SS continues to work with all students and the school community to offer all students an inclusive education in a supportive environment. The PBL committee meets weekly to implement proactive strategies and address any problem behaviours.”

“Weekly focus lessons and strategies are provided through the Berry Street Education Model (BSEM). The lessons enable teachers to increase engagement of students with complex learning needs and to successfully improve students’ self-regulation, relationships, wellbeing, growth and academic achievement.”

Originally published as ‘Nobody was helping’: Parents expose major bullying concerns at Brassall State School