Just saw a bunch of kids beating a girl

[Mamumu]

I feel awful, I should have stopped, but then, what would I have done? I was with my little one on her scooter, there were other adults on the place and everybody seemed to find it 'normal'. It was in the middle of the street, in Southfields, a bunch of school kids (red jumpers uniforms) were beating (not hardly, but she was on the floor and seemed very sad) a girl. They'd all be around 13ish. Crazy. I grabbed my girl and walked faster, as I felt that maybe if I said something, they would come for us. They'd be around 15 kids. Again, what shocks me most is that NOBODY was doing anything! And there were lots of people in the street!

Is Southfields a really rough place or is this normal in secondary schools in London? :-S

[thisisyesterday]

oh i'm sorry, i see you wanted advice.

well my advice is:

next time you see a child lying on the floor being beaten up, do something.

[Blu]

13 yo?
You shout loudly and assertively 'stop that NOW - leave her alone NOW or I'm calling the police'. And then tell the victims to come with you - get the victi to come away from it, not the perpertrators.

I'm sure many of us have failed to act on the spur of the moment, and felt bad afterwards - and it''s hard to say, we weren't there, don't know how threatening they may have looked. But I've challenged young teens and seen them scarper. I don't think you should intervene if you feel genuinely unsafe, but I am sure more interventions could take place, in general.

[memoo]

Op, can you come back and try and work out what school this was. Clearly some poor child is being hideously bullied and somebody needs to, at the very least, contact the school.

I can't stand the thought of some poor girl being bullied and nobody doing anything about it.

Seriously, what road etc? I'll even contact them myself if needs be.

[WhyHavePets]

Op, I have been in this situation, picking dds up from nursery (which is in a school) a gang of kids were gathering outside the gates and I could just feel something was "up". Low and behold some poor 12ish yo comes out with his bike, white and shaking. The group (age around 12 up to 18) launched on him. I was totally terrified but increadibly angry all in one go. I was able to scream at them in my best teacher voice "LEAVE HIM THE FUCK ALONE - HOW DARE YOU" - but I can see how the emotion would make someone else clam up. It is not as easy as all that when you are scared.

Poor kid was on the ground and the group backed off - except one little shit kid who dived in and booted him in the head . I am ashamed to say that I caught said scrote by the ear and told him that he was a total cowardly scumbag and that fighting is one thing but kicking someone one the floor is beyond contempt. At this point a couple walking past turned up and all the kids ran for it.

I went into the school to report them and myself, I shouldn't have grabbed the kid, no matter what. Poor boy being beaten was scooted off to hospital, it took just a few seconds to break his jaw, cheekbone and a rib

I am really glad I did something but it still makes me shake with remembered fear now, I can quite see how others would not have reacted in the same way.

[Blu]

Yes, actually, you can do something constructive to help. Call the school tomorrow and tell the everything you saw.
Then when the poor girl (hopefully) reports the bullying the school won't dismiss it as 'no proof'.

[southeastastra]

i've found yelling 'you're on cctv you know' quite good at getting groups to scarper

[JamieLeeCurtis]

OP - 999

[HowsTheSerenity]

THere was an incident years ago in the USA when a girl was raped in the central area of a block of flats. She screamed and begged for help. Lots of people looked out their windows and watched. Each one thought the other had called the police.

Turned out no one did.


Think about it.

[sixpercenttruejedi]

my DD was bullied at her old school. A gang caught her after school and was throwing stones at her.
2 other parents stepped in to rescue her. 1 stood up to the bullies and repoted it to the school. The other brought her home and made sure she was ok, then later confronted the bullies parents.
I know it's a bit scary, but you're an adult. You left a 13 year old child to face something that you were unprepared to face yourself. I'm obviously really lucky to live in the community that I do.

[GeorgeOsborne]

Could it be Burntwood girls? They have red sweatshirts.
Bit out of area, but not massively. What time was it?

[SpawnChorus]

WhyHavePets - I love you! You're post gave me a lump in my throat.

OP - walking away was pretty unforgivable IMO. Did you not think to yourself "what if this were my daughter?"

[SpawnChorus]

argh! - your not you're!

[DooinMeCleanin]

I can understand why you didn't go rushing over and start dragging them off her when you had your child with you, but doing nothing is just cowardly. You should be ashamed of yourself. You have just taught your daughter that it is okay to ignore this kind behviour, congratulations on that .

You could have walked into a shop to phone the police.

You could have asked another bystander to call the police.

You could have walked up to another bystander and asked "Are you going to do anything about this, or going going to leave it to a mother and her child to deal with?"

You could call the police and the school NOW.

I was sexually assaulted on a bus when I was teenager. It wasn't a serious assault (in that he did not rape me) but no-one on the bus helped or called the police. Not even the driver . I was too scared to get the man of me myself and my friend begged the driver for help, but he simply told her that if she did not sit down and stop disturbing him while he was driving he would pull over and throw us all of the bus .

I didn't dare leave the house again for about 3/4 months. I learnt that as a child you simply cannot rely on adults to help or protect you .

I hope you feel very proud of yourself op.

[shandydrinker]

I think it was Burntwood girls, not St Cecilias, were they red sweatshirts? Give the police a ring now and tell them, also ring the school tomorrow morning.

I understand why you were cautious and youve already said you feel ashamed that you didnt do something.

Lots of people fear repercussions and gangs of teenagers can be intimidating.

I think some people are being a bit harsh to op, she was protecting her 3yr old and was new to the area.

[booyhoo]

for you dooin

[LoopyLoops]

I can't quite figure out what the OP wanted us to say.

Of course you should have done something, and let this act as a reminder to everyone else to do so in the future. You don't need to endanger yourself or your child by doing so, just telling them that you're calling the police will have helped.

[sixpercenttruejedi]

If you can still do something to help such as reporting to the school then I think you should. It may sound harsh but to do nothing is inexcusable. If you can make some kind of official report, either to the school or the police then you're doing something to help. Not everyone can go in gung-ho, all fists flailing, but even shoulding out No! can spur other bystanders into intervening.
When I said I was lucky with the community I live in, I wasn't being snide. I was genuinely amazed the way other parents were prepared to step in. It's spurred me to make sure I do the same if I have to in future.

[ruddynorah]

good grief.

when i was 18 i called the police when i saw a man punch a chil of about 8. the boy had thrown a water balloon over a bridge onto this man's boat. the man came up and punched him. i screamed at the man to get off him and said i was calling the police. which i did. the man dashed off but the pratt didn't know i knew where he moored his boat as i lived by the canal in a student flat right above his very distinctive boat.

so that's me aged 18 doing the right thing. you OP, did not. shame on you.

[musicmadness]

I can't believe you didn't do anything! Actually, forget that, I can. When I was a year 7 I got attacked in the middle of the town centre by about 8 other kids (not from my school). There was a "rivalry" between the schools and me being young and on my own was an easy target. Not one person bothered to help me, and this was the middle of the day so there were plenty of people around. By the time I managed to run I was bleeding and looked a right mess, and TBH I was lucky that I managed to get away before it got even worse. I hope to god your DD never ends up in that situation because you just taught her that it is fine for no one to help.

[minipops1974]

That could have been your DD - What would you have wanted people to do??? Im sure you not online now or maybe wont ever come back - but thats how I assess these situations. What would I have wanted people to do if it was my child..

I do hope that girl is ok - Bullying needs to be stopped - and that girl was left!

Sorry - I think if there is anything we can do to stop bullying then we need to do it.

Sorry for the rant