Ds attacked on the street. Police called.

[GazeboLantern]

Ds is in Y10. After school today a group of boys from his year attacked him on the street. He was knocked down and punched and kicked. Fortunately ds does not seem badly hurt.

This was in front of witnesses, both from their school and strangers, and the attackers tried unsuccessfully to hide their identities. An unknown adult intervened and rescued ds. The police were called but did not attend. Apparently the police told ds they would contact us in the next couple of days. Ds returned to his school, and told his HoY.

Ds suspects he was targeted because he is a prefect and tried - legitimately - to stop some teenagers going into an area where they normally are permitted but today were not.

What would you expect to happen next?

I’m sorry for you that must have been a shock. However I have to be honest and say if he wasn’t seriously injuries almost certainly nothing much will happen now - the police will just think of it as a school kids fight but out of school (as a lot of fights between school kids happen then). They’re also not going to throw the book at first time underage offenders for fighting with school peers.

Honestly I think this is the kind of thing which makes giving prefects authority to tell other kids what to do such a bad idea. There are rough kids and they don’t take being bossed around by another school peer who they otherwise would never listen to well. It’s a beating from a bully or two just waiting to happen I’m afraid.

The type of people that do these things won't learn. The best thing is to pursue the police dealing with it. The sooner violent offenders have a record started, the sooner they'll be taken off the street before they end up curb stomping, stabbing or bottling someone.

Have you rung the police yet? The crime needs to be reported properly and you need a crime reference number.

Why have you not called the police today? Please do so. And the you can email the school tomorrow with the police reference number.

Your son should have been more judicious about enforcing his duties as prefect. Being prefect is for his own personal good and university application; not to literally go around policing other children (and hence assuming the liabilities of the adults). That is a fool's errand.

If the background of your son and his assailants are stark, I would advise proceeding very carefully. After all, his ultimate objective is to get to the university he desires. Nothing else matters.

@Rory2910 being a prefect is not something universities give a hoot about. If those shitheads had gone to an area they weren't supposed to the prefect would have also have been in trouble for allowing them to do it.

Of course he should be able to carry out his duties without some children feeling entitled to physically assault him. The quicker these children learn that you cannot go through life punching people you disagree with the better. And maybe a talk from the police is what they need.

@GazeboLantern I am sorry this happened to your son. The fact that they were in uniform and their behaviour witnessed by the general public may be all the school needs to be able to impose some sanctions. My child was attacked in school and despite being year 11 the child was excluded, had a return to school meeting where our impact statement was read aloud, and when he did return he was put in isolation for several days. It was more than we had hoped for but this did take place in a classroom.

Some schools have a police liaison officer who deals with incidents such as this. Have a look at the school's website to see if you have anything like this listed. I think we googled it. When you do speak to school or see them ask them what they are putting in place to safeguard your son whilst in school from these boys.

@Lemonleaflicker
Your assumptions only work if these are nominally good kids misbehaving in this one particular instance. Then they will be deterred if the police and/or school discipline is assessed.

However, if they are already experienced young hooligans, then it is more trouble than its worth. If you don't know what that means, let me spell it out for you. What guarantees do you have that the bad children won't take revenge in the future? What guarantees do you have they won't bring a knife next time? Again, his job is to get into university and not to become entangled with these people for the remainder of his secondary education.

Let me ask you this: is the school going to take responsibility now for what happened? Of course not. They will say prefects are not mandated to jeopardize their physical safety for the sake duty.

I understand the moral repugnancy of this act. But going forward, the parent of the assaulted child must put his future long-term interests first. The police prefers this kind of thing to be handled by the school, and the school prefers the police to handle it. Educating the bad children isn't his nor his mother's job. Educating himself is.

@Rory2910 but simply doing nothing surely gives them the green light to continue to do this to this child. If the school, nor police so anything then where is the deterrent? And yes my sons have been confronted by a pupil who was previously at their school who was now in a PRU so we are not immune to this situation.

Maybe it is different in your area, maybe it is different for the OP with regard to school and these particular children. My youngest son has been a target since he started secondary. I certainly didn't tell him to pretend to be stupid so that these children wouldn't feel inferior to him. He also didn't brag about his grades, but kids find out what other kids got on tests.

Fortunately for us school takes a very hard line with any bullying behaviour hence why a year 11 pupil was excluded. Hopefully the OP's son's school will do the same.

Luckily our school does take these incidents seriously, in school and out. There is also a police liaison officer attached to the school. The HoY has always said he will work with the police on this.

Ds does not have a history of aggression. Quite the contrary - he was bullied a lot.

Ds did not exceed his authority as a prefect. I was unclear in my OP. The prefect incident happened in school, the out of school attack was probably a consequence.

@GazeboLantern

Isnt that the danger of prefects though? That them having authority over other kids and using it (even when it’s appropriate) will lead to this kind of thing?

Really wouldn’t be encouraging your son to tell rougher boys to follow the rules or pull them up when they break them, even if the school has been foolish enough to advise him that it’s ok to do so.

To those types of kids they don’t care about prefects whatsoever, they just take it as someone challenging them. Which is why discipline is better left to teachers.