I feel at the end of my tether. The boy is still at school. My son sees him several times a day, including in the toilet, although school have now told the other boy to use one toilet block (although they forgot to tell DS this). We have had a meeting with the Head and Safeguarding Lead. We have another meeting on Friday.
Despite the boy being told by the police, the school, and his parents he is talking about this: yesterday another boy approached DS and said "why didn't you think about Little Shit's feelings before you reported him to the police" and "LS said you touched him first and I believe him". (This third party boy told DS a couple of weeks ago "he tried to touch me up a few times in Y8. I punched him and he stopped". The two are now friends. Very odd.
DS has now missed 4 days of school over the last 2 weeks. School have not punished the boy at all (school's policy attached). He's been spoken to by the HoY and his parents were called in. There has been no suspension or detention or anything. The police investivation is ongoing.
I wonder if we have any sort of legal recourse, based on the following:-
Department of Education's Exclusion Guidelines:-
There is no list of set behaviours for which a pupil can and cannot be excluded, and the decision to exclude lies with the head teacher. Head teachers can only exclude a pupil for a disciplinary reason (e.g. because their behaviour violates the school’s behaviour policy). They cannot, for example, exclude a pupil for academic performance/ability, or simply because they have additional needs or a disability that the school feels it is unable to meet. A head teacher can exclude for behaviour outside of school, or for repeatedly disobeying academic instructions.”
“When establishing the facts in relation to an exclusion decision the head teacher must apply the civil standard of proof; i.e. ‘on the balance of probabilities’ it is more likely than not that a fact is true, rather than the criminal standard of ‘beyond reasonable doubt.’ This means that the head teacher should accept that something happened if it is more likely that it happened than that it did not happen.”
(My first question in our previous meeting was "do you believe DS" because I wanted this established for the above reason.
Keeping children safe in education:-
“Schools and colleges should not wait for the outcome (or even the start) of a children’s social care investigation before protecting the victim and other children in the school or college. It will be important for the designated safeguarding lead (or a deputy) to work closely with children’s social care (and other agencies as required) to ensure any actions the school or college takes do not jeopardise a statutory investigation. The risk assessment as per paragraph 248 will help inform any decision. Consideration of safeguarding the victim, alleged perpetrator, any other children directly involved in the safeguarding report and all children at the school or college should be immediate.”
I feel like school are doing nothing. They were very slow to react (2 weeks had passed since first disclosure), apparently then emails I sent with my concerns were not received.
DS finally got his phone back from the police yesterday (the other boy's has been sent off for more detailed analysis). Yesterday when DS messaged me to say "they're talking about it, they're saying I touched LS first etc." and I emailed the school (I am recording every little thing) DS was told by the safeguarding lead/Deputy Head "maybe it's not a good idea to message your mum in the day". But he's scared and upset, and worried about losing his new group of friends etc.
We're doing all we can at this end. He has started counselling with a therapist who specialises in trauma and child sex abuse. I just feel like I don't feel "wow, school are handling this well and we don't need to worry about him there" at least.
Is there anything we could or should be doing? Is their lack of action reasonable?