Harassment by group of young children

[Smartiepants79]

Is there anything worth doing about this? If so, what?
Over that last month both of my teenagers and their friends have been harassed and assaulted by a group of much younger girls.
Group seems to consist of an older teen, maybe 17, a few 10 year olds and one about 7. The youngest seems to be main issue. The older girls claim that she is autistic but we have no way of knowing if that is true.
To try and shorten the story- both of my girls had had run in with this group, they appear to be related. One happened at around 9:30 at night and one in the middle of the day. One was actually assaulted by having her hair yanked so hard she nearly fell over ( by the youngest child) Both incidents involved verbal harassment, being followed and intimidation.
These kids are so young and basically roaming the village unsupervised.
I can’t figure that there is anything worth doing about it?

Try and find the parents and have a word or phone the police. Can your girls stand their ground? Bullies dont like that.

Well they sort of did stand their ground but the hair pulling was completely out of the blue and left her and her friends so shocked they didn’t know what to do except keeping walking away. This child is half their age!
Through her friends we think we know where at least some of the live but I didn’t see any of it and don’t know the kids or the parents. It’s unlikely that they’re the kind of parents who would take kindly to me speaking to them about this. They let their (possibly autistic) 7 year old roam the streets at 10pm.

The possible autism is completely irrelevant.

The cannot go around yanking people's hair, regardless.

How old are your teens? Autistic or not this 7 year old needs a lesson.

You report the incidents to the police.

Report to police, do you have a local Facebook group? I’d put it anonymously on there.

I agree with you BUT given the age of the kids I can’t come up with a sensible way of doing anything about it. There’s no point reporting it to the police and school
is shut right now even if I could tell them exactly who she was.

When my dd was being harassed we involved the police.
Whilst waiting for all the dps to be informed one girl seriously threatend dd. She was about 12. Girl about 15 ..her siblings cornered the ring leader in the local park.
Only shouted at her but she ran crying to her friends..
The harrasmemt stopped then .

Why is there no point in reporting this group to 101?

You haven't said what your reasoning is?

Reporting it to the police will make sure theres a report about it and they may go to see the little brats parents. It might scare them into behaving. If they get away with it they'll keep doing it. Apart from that you'll just have to try and get your daughter's to ignore them and hope the gang gets bored. Kids usually do if theres no reaction. I'd usually say hit them back but it looks like the older one is using the young kids to fire their bullets.

But we have no real idea who they are. I can’t tell the police any names or addresses. How can they go and see them or their parents?
I did actually get half way through an online 101 report the first time it happened but the forms wanted a load of info I didn’t have and it just felt like an overreaction when it’s asking. If anyone has required medical attention etc
I guess if they’re unlucky enough to have it happen again I’ll try again.

Report it anyway it helps the police form picture you don't know who else they're bullying

Get in touch with the council/ Local Authority, there will be a complaints section on their website and because they are a gang and your DD was assaulted and they need to be punished, and warned to stope the harassment and intimidation.

Out of control brats with not a braincell between the 4 of them and the youngest, regardless of her autism needs to wind her neck in and behave herself, a condition is not an excuse for obnoxious behaviour.

What sort of community do you live in, by which I mean rural, suburban, city?

We live rurally and round here the community police would almost certainly have an inkling what was going on. The hold local surgeries where people can report local nuisances like this. It might be worth seeing if your nearest police have a Facebook page and try and speak to local officers f2f

That actually might be worth looking into. It’s a fairly large, rural ish village. Currently expanding rather too rapidly due to new building. The community is much more transient than it ever used to be but I think this family my be known as the friends who attend the more local secondary (mine don’t) seemed to know who they might be.