DARTMOUTH – A Dartmouth mother has pulled her three kids from their elementary school because she says school staff aren’t doing enough to protect them from bullying.
Melinda Ross pulled daughter Alyssa, 11, from Ian Forsyth Elementary School on Tuesday. She had already pulled out son Josh, 12, from the school two years ago. The mom removed youngest son Blake from Ian Forsyth, also on Tuesday, as an extra precaution.
Ross says it all began two years ago when Josh was bullied by other students.
“It started off first with pushing his lunch over and name calling,” she said. “Then it turned physical. One day he was cornered in the bathroom and a couple kids grabbed him by the shirt and slammed the door into his head.”
The mom says she spoke with school staff and while a plan was put into place, Josh was attacked just one month later.
“He was still getting taunted. He was still getting bullied. He was starting to get depressed.”
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Ross believes the school failed to follow through on the plan to protect her son. That’s when she decided to take Josh out of the school and enroll him into another school instead.
“He didn’t feel safe and I didn’t feel safe putting him there.”
Josh says his life has changed since changing schools.
“I’m a lot better and my anger went down a lot more,” he said.
Meanwhile daughter Alyssa was also being bullied at the same school.
The soft-spoken girl says she was picked on by other students and when she informed her teacher, the teacher did not act.
“She didn’t do anything about it. I didn’t want to tell anyone else,” Alyssa said.
But eventually the bullying escalated and this past Tuesday, she finally told her mom everything that had been happening at school.
Ross says she was told the school was “looking into it”.
“I decided once I had the conversation with the principal, I wasn’t sending her back,” she said. “In my opinion, Alyssa wasn’t safe going back.”
“I’m a parent with two children in the same school who have been bullied and enough is enough.”
In a statement to Global News, Doug Hadley with the Halifax Regional School Board said: “As with any parent concern, we are working closely with the family and the staff at the school to address those issues. For privacy reasons, we cannot discuss the remedies specific to this case but the school has created a plan and already made significant efforts to address the situation.”
But Ross wishes school staff had done more sooner. She wants the kids who bullied her children to be disciplined and held accountable for their actions.
And though her children do not go to the school anymore, she plans to follow through with Ian Forsyth Elementary School to ensure changes are indeed made.
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