Bullying at school is a concern for all parents, who will stand up for your child when you aren’t there to protect them yourself? It can also have serious repercussions, affecting self-esteem, confidence and social skills later in life.
We always tell children to report bullying at school and that way the bully can be apprehended. But what happens when the school ignores reports from a child and their parents?
Frustrated by the lack of action by the school, one mum decided to post photos of her child’s injuries from a bully.
Please be aware these photos are of a graphic nature.
The mum from Shropshire began her #justiceforJak campaign on Facebook to highlight her son’s bullying ordeal. She explained young Jak, 7, had been subjected to horrific physical and verbal bullying by another child at school.
“He has been whipped with skipping ropes, stabbed with a pencil, scratched, punched, called names, stabbed with paper clips, hit around the face with a tennis racket”, she explained.
The bully, his brother and two friends even jumped on the youngster’s head. But the latest injury was the most vicious yet. On March 23, the bully shoved Jak so hard, he hit his head on a metal pole and was left with a massive wound on his scalp.
Jak ended up in hospital for six days afterwards. The school’s response angered his mum: “The school did not give him a head injury letter or even a cold compress,” she said.
“A letter sent to all parents said that it was a MINOR INJURY that has got infected!!!!! I’m appalled at the school”, she wrote.
The desperate mum then appealed to police for help but they told her they could not help as the child was under ten years old.
She recounted how she became alarmed about how bad Jak’s head injury was. The day after the incident occurred, she took Jake to hospital as the lump on his head was considerably swollen.She was told it was concussion and was sent home.
“On the 29/03/17 I took Jak to a doctor as his lump was still very big and had started leaking puss, he was then put on antibiotics”, she continued.
The little boy’s wound got progressively worse and he also had severe head pains.
Jak’s birthday was on April 1 but he couldn’t enjoy the day and instead spent it crying in the toilet because the noise of his friends was hurting his head. “That evening Jak cried all night with head pains in my bed”, his mum said. He was later admitted to hospital for assessment.
Doctors found a blood clot and operated on April 5 to drain the blood clot that had formed and puss that had gathered in his head.
His mum explained Jak needed extensive treatment to recover. “Jak is on a drip having antibiotics, painkillers and even morphine. His vein had collapsed in his hands from his cannula so he is like a human pin cushion”, the distraught mum revealed.
Yesterday the little boy had to endure having an electric vacuum drain inserted into his head to drain the infection and the blood from his head.
The angry mum said: “Jak is lying in a bed on strong medication with tubes coming out of him whilst the bully has carried on with life as normal!
“My son has been in a hospital bed for 6 days, not once has the bully missed a break time or received any punishment!”
She’s asking other mums to share her photo of Jak to encourage parents to speak to their children about bullying and raise awareness.
“We need to stand up to bullies, pull together and make a change! Teach our children to be kind, teach our children to speak up,” she said.
We are appalled by the school's lack of action, we hope they will take action to make sure Jak and other children who are being bullied can go to school without living in fear.