BULLYING - SERIOUS INJURY, WHERE DO WE STAND - PLS HELP!

[donnie]

I am posting on behalf of a very good friend of mine whose daughter has been badly injured in a bullying incident; I deliberately did not post in the legal section as I thought there would be more traffic here. If anyone has any help or advice I would be so grateful. She is not a MNer so I am doing it on her behalf. Sorry but it is VERY long.

Victim - year 3 girl, she has been bullied at school by various people including this boy who is in yr 4. It includes physical bullying. The incidents have been reported, the girls parents have been in contact with the school etc.There is history, in other words.

Just before the end of term she was pushed deliberately off a climbing frame in the playground by this boy (although he denies it). This is where it becomes really bad: she broke her arm, but so badly that the artery in the (left) arm became compressed and therefore the injury became life threatening. The school did NOT call an ambulance but rang my friend to say her dd had 'hurt her arm and might need to be taken to minor injuries'. Interestingly, however, they informed her dd's piano teacher that she would n't be attending her piano lesson because of 'a suspected fracture'. My friend has the email from the music teacher to corroborate this.

She ended up in emergency surgery that same day for 6 hours; vascular surgeons were required since the artery was on the verge of being punctured by shards of bone. There was a possibility of amputation and there will very likely be long term or permanent nerve damage. She may require subsequent operations - it's a long road. Obviously all this happened only a fortnight ago so the picture is as yet unclear.

6 months ago another child in the same year group also broke her arm after falling off the same climbing frame and there is a rumour of a third incident which my friend is attempting to find out about.

My friend believes there has been a massive dereliction of duty and care. Her daughter is frightened of returning to school. The other boy is still there and as far as she is aware has not been punished in any way. What pressure can be brought to bear on the school to ensure her safety?

She also believes that her daughter is entitled to compensation so if anyone has any recommendations for this sort of legal case she would be very grateful.

Thanks a lot in advance
xx

[SerialKipper]

Gosh, how awful. No advice to give, I'm afraid. Maybe repost this in Legal or Education if you don't get enough responses here?

[donnie]

bump for the early evening crowd
xx

[festi]

that is terrible, not sure about compensation and what that would solve or or be used for? I think they would need to be clear as to why they are seeking compensation. If the dd needed any sort of treatment such as physio etc, they probabaly should look into it. They can make a complaint Im not sure if it would be under the children act 1989 or the education act ? date, I remember reading something about duty of care under one of these acts. If the school has failded to maintain the childs welfare, but they would need to prove the school was neglegant, I would suggest they were ot for the accident, but maybe for the action they had taken after the accident. If you have proof they had suspected it was a fracture and had not acted accordingly.

They should ask for a copy of the accident or incident form which the school must complete by law and Im sure they are obliged to see a copy if they requested. It may be worth the parents calling ofsted to ask advice. Prior to making a complaint to the school. I once called ofsted about a seriouse incident in my dds nursery, and ofsted adviced me with regards to how to make a complaint to the school and the steps to take, however they did investigate what I had reported in "retrospect" as it was a seriouse incident.

As for action with regards to the actual bully, I dont know what to suggest, but he seriously requires more suppervision than the school are curently providing. Im always a little concerned at calls to exclude children this young, I believe its the schools responsibilty to manage and supervise, however that is down to LA funding unfortunatly and teachers can only work within their own limitations.

[festi]

ment to say NOT for the accident. typo

[donnie]

thanks festi that is very helpful.

[TheMonster]

Was it during breaktime?

[festi]

I think it is s4 of children act 2004 actaualy. It is something to do with the childrens comissioner looking into the treatment of children either concerns where other children are involved (i,e bullying) Im not sure it is specific to schools though. I will try top google it a bit later and post again. Thought I had a copy of the act on pdf nut I dont.

[Heyyyho]

Good grief that is horrendous! I would be absolutely furious and d pegging the school to give an explanation as to why they didn't take it seriously.

I think a meeting at the school is where this starts. Inwould also be contacting my solicitor.

[belcantwait]

Hmmmmmm would this school be in Exeter by any chance?

[festi]

they may want to look into how they manage the climbing frame, in my dds school it is one class a day on the climbing frame and they rotate it on a daily basis. so yr and 1 monday, y2 tuesday and so on.

[Willowisp]

I'd be changing schools immediately, that's absolutely terrible

[LaurieFairyCake]

I would repost this in legal as I don't think it has anything to do with bullying as they are under the age for criminal responsibility.

You may have a point about the climbing frame needing to be supervised, you may not - children fall from them all the time - I don't know if they have to supervise them.

You may also have a point about the 'fracture' or not fracture - but you may not, what was clear is that they said she needed to be picked up from school - they couldn't diagnose a fracture anyway so it doesn't really matter that it was an off-the-cuff remark to the music teacher does it ? as it makes no difference as she was picked up and they asked to have her picked up?

It's perfectly normal that if a child hurts themselves that the full details are not given in the first phone call - just 'you need to come to school as your child has injured themselves' - this is the same message (rightly) given to the parents of a child who died at school.

[donnie]

thanks for replying ; to clarify, the incident happened at morning breaktime and the school is not anywhere near Exeter!

LFC - the point I was making was that if the school said to another member of staff there was a suspected fracture why did they not get an ambulance? I think they deliberately did not call an ambulance because to do so would be an admittance of some kind. I know other people whose children have had bad broken limb injuries on school premises where an ambulance has not been called . I am coming to the inevitable conclusion that is is unspoken school policy NOT to contact the emergency services.

[LaurieFairyCake]

But it's not generally the done thing to call an ambulance for a suspected fracture - yes if the child is hurt with a head injury or unconscious but not for a fracture.

What would it admit if they called an ambulance?

[donnie]

As I said, there was a previous incident of a child breaking a limb on the same piece of equipment and there may be a third incident. Plus there was a history of this child bullying my friend's dd. There is a question of supervision here IMO.

[madwomanintheattic]

i wouldn't contact the emergency services if i suspected one of my dc's had fractured an arm - leg, yes. but arms can be supported and don't require specialist services ordinarily unless the skin is broken and complex fracture. it would be perfectly reasonable to drive a child to a&e with a broken arm (and indeed, have done so myself, and also been the kid in the car with mum, dad and a broken arm).

that's not to minimise the seriousness of this injury, but the school probably assumed that the dd would be far happier going to get checked out with her parents, rather than subjecting her to a terrifying ride in an ambulance with a member of school staff.

some schools do have supervision for climbing frames, others don't. i'm afraid i'm not buying the other 'incidents' involving the climbing frame. kids do fall off them all the time. and they break bones. sometimes seriously.

if the child was pushed, then that should be dealt with separately. but a yr 3 kid (bully or no) is likely to have just been being pushy and shovey, rather than intending to cause serious life threatening injury.

i doubt that anyone will support a legal case. the parents just need to discuss supervision of the climbing facility with the school, and if they believe it was a continuation of the 'bullying', then make sure it is all recorded and take the complaint to the next level. were there any witnesses? if no-one saw him push her in a busy playground, then it will just be 'he says, she says' and won't go anywhere.

seeking compensation is unnecessary and frankly a bit weird. there are are likely to be no lifelong effects, (amputation not required, and although there may be a need for further ops, it is just a possibility, not a given.) chalk it up to a childhood accident and try and get on with healing. the injury could have been identical if she had just slipped.

[cuckoocat]

Awful that she broke her arm.The main issue is the bullying.Having had severely bullied child myself I realised that schools do nothing to protect the victims of bullies.Instead the bully gets rewarded.I had very good advice from KIDSCAPE and that was if the school is not on your side you have no option but to remove your child and put him into another school.As wrong as this may seem and it is infuriating that schools can no longer expel bullies, this was what we did.