DS's face hit with door slammed on purpose by another pupil, but other pupil NOT punished.

[GreenTeaWhite]

While at school, my DS had a door slammed in his face by another pupil. It happened too quickly for my DS to react and so the door hit his face with force. All the school has done is spoken to the other pupil about the incident. The school has decided not to punish the other pupil in any way whatsoever, as they say that punishing the other pupil could lead to the other pupils in my DS's year group staying away from my DS, for fear of getting into trouble.

For background, my DS has ASD and sadly doesn't have any friends at school. The school cited the same reasons for not punishing pupils when my DS was pushed a number of times by another pupil for a period of time and when kicked number of times by yet another pupil for a period of time. I accepted their approach before, but it clearly hasn't made a difference. I am now at the point where I feel the school think that my DS should endure being hurt in a hope that the rest of the year group might somehow find it in themselves to be more inclusive?

If you're a school leader, please can you let me know what action you would expect to happen if such an incident happened at your school?

I am wondering if it's worth making a formal complaint so that there is a formal record of the school's handling of this.

Thank you for your thoughts.

No no no no no, this is really bad. For a start, any injury to the head area needs logging in accident book and first aid. We had a boy who suffered a brain injury because of a door accidentally slamming into his face. Pursue this in writing OP. It's not so much about sanctions as it is about keeping children safe and yiur DS's safety doesn't seem to be being taken seriously.

Can you describe the incident a bit more clearly as most doors hitting a pupil's face would be being opened wildly, not closed.

The school don't get to decide whether it is assault or not.

That is why you hand it over to the police.

He has taken a knock to the head, it does need to be logged.

Unless you put things in an email it is very easy for a school to deny any conversation or report took place.

Everything logged on email lets them know you will not be ignored.

Doesn't Ofstead have to be provided with parent communications during an inspection?

Is there a different school option? Somewhere he will be safer. If the school won't do anything I would look for a better option

The difficulty here is that you say there were no witnesses to this incident. So your DS says one thing, and the other boy says another. In that case, what are the school supposed to do? They would need proof that there was an intent to hurt your ds, as would the police should you choose to involve them. It would go nowhere.
What you say the school has told you is worrying though. I would go back and speak to the Head of year for a debriefing. However, they will not tell you of whatever punishment they decide to give - thats private information that youre not privy to.

I think you really need to push back hard on this OP. Please email and ask for an appointment with Head.

Thank you to everyone's responses so far. I have read the school's behaviour policy and complaints policy. There isn't anything that says "if a pupil does x, then y is the consequence". It's all a bit vague.

My DS is actually leaving at the end of this term, so maybe that's another reason why the school school just wants to brush this under the carpet.

Have they looked at any CCTV? I would make a complaint and also consider withdrawing your ds for the rest of the term if you can. Home ed until he moves to the new setting.

Separately to the behaviour I'm surprised that there aren't dampers on the doors at a school to prevent them slamming shut or swinging back on people.

If it was an accident then the school is negligent because it is physically unsafe. If it was deliberate then the school is still negligent as it shouldn't be possible to slam doors. I realise this seems off topic but it seemed worth pointing out.

I can't remember what it is called, but there is a parent survey on the Ofsted website for every school where you can rate the school for things like bullying, there is a text box as well. If there are enough complaints on it, an inspection can be triggered. Don't school have to keep a record about things like bullying & how each event is dealt with for inspections? If you get no joy, speak to your MP, I had the same problem & my MP gave school a rocket, funnily enough, I never had any more problems after that.