Mum warned Aberfoyle Park High School twice the morning before daughter’s horror bashing

A high school student was bashed so badly at a southern suburbs high school she needed surgery. Her mum says she called the school twice to stop it but by lunch her daughter lay on the concrete bleeding.

A year 8 student was savagely assaulted by two older girls, even though her Mum had called the school twice that morning to ask them to intervene to stop it. Picture: Kelly Barnes

A southern suburbs high school student was bashed by others so badly she needed surgery for a ruptured appendix, her mum says.

The mother of the girl, 13, says she called Aberfoyle Park High School twice on the morning of the planned attack asking for someone to intervene, but by lunchtime her daughter was on the ground bleeding.

It is the same school where – as revealed by The Advertiser – the parents of 13-year-old boy left with PTSD hallucinations after a brutal attack by a fellow student were outraged that the school told him to make friends with his attacker.

The mother said her daughter was still struggling with migraines since the brutal attack by two older girls.

She said the pair smashed her daughter’s head repeatedly on a concrete path and claimed the school did nothing to prevent the attack.

The woman said her daughter, then in year 8 in 2022, texted her one morning saying she was terrified of two older female students who were threatening to bash her at lunchtime.

“I first rang mid morning and told student services. They said they would tell the teachers,” she said.

“I didn’t hear anything so I rang before lunch and they just seemed very blasé about it and said they would tell the yard duty teachers to keep an eye out.”

She said 10 minutes after that phone call, she got a call from the school saying she needed to pick her daughter up.

“How could you let this happen, I warned you about it, why weren’t the girls taken into the principal’s office, why weren’t their parents called.”

“I turned up and she had an ice pack, black eyes, was bleeding out of her nose and ears.”

The mum said the older girls had snuck up on her daughter from behind while teachers stood talking nearby.

“I said to them: ‘How could you let this happen? I warned you about it. Why weren’t the girls taken into the principal’s office? Why weren’t their parents called?’ It was a total failure.”

Her daughter was taken to the hospital where she had to have her ruptured appendix removed.

A video of the attack, filmed by student onlookers, soon surfaced and was widely circulated on social media.

The mum said the school refused to expel the older girls and her daughter could not return there because she kept having panic attacks at the gate.

Other schools in the area said they could not take her because they were over capacity.

The mum said she sought intervention from the Education Department and Education Minister’s office so her daughter could access a psychiatrist and be re-schooled at an undisclosed location.

A department spokeswoman said: “Both the students involved were excluded for 10 weeks as a result and the matter was reported to police, with the family also advised of their right to report to police. The department paid for external counselling for the student and provided extensive wellbeing support at the school for the student.

“When (the mother) contacted the school the morning of the incident, yard duty teachers were advised of her concerns to help keep any eye on her daughter during the day.

“Department records indicate that at the time, the student’s family were supportive of the work that was done by the school.”

Originally published as Mum warned Aberfoyle Park High School twice the morning before daughter’s horror bashing