Alness Academy pupil (12) was hospitalised after fellow pupils ‘attacked him’
An angry Easter Ross parent has pulled his son (12) out secondary school, after saying he was left in hospital following an attack which has sparked a row over bullying.
The parent says his son was left with a concussion after attacked on Alness Academy school premises by a large group of fellow pupils.
And now, a senior Easter Ross councillor is calling for action, claiming “it’s now worse than ever” at the school, and demanded a “long-term plan for tackling the issues”.
The Ross-shire Journal was contacted by the parent, who has several children at the school, following an attack on his 12-year-old son. The man, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “I had to phone an ambulance for him, he had a concussion after having his head kicked. The bullies also recorded it on their phone, which has now gone all around the school.
“The academy has done nothing to deal with these bullies — they are still in the school, threatening my son’s friends. How is this fair on the victims? My son feels very down and depressed after all this — I feel extremely angry about it.
“I’m taking all of my children out of that school. My son went through hell at that school.”
In the wake of the November 11 incident, it has been claimed that several other parents have also removed their children from the school, due to similar issues with bullying. This is thought to have been trigged by a Alness Academy Facebook post on November 13, promoting Anti-Bullying Week with blue wristbands. The post is understood to have received many comments from pupils and parents criticising the “tone-deaf” post, before Alness Academy turned the comments off. In response to the social media post, one parent said: “How are wristbands going to stop bullying?”
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Cromarty Firth councillor, Maxine Smith said: “The school was getting somewhere last year now it’s worse than ever. The Council need to come up with a properly thought out long term plan for tackling the issues at Alness academy. Clearly with many many head teachers over the last decade it’s not working. They need to understand what the root cause is.”
A Highland Council spokesperson said: “All of our schools take any complaints about bullying very seriously and follow national policy on dealing with incidents to ensure each school has a safe and supportive learning environment for everyone.”
Cromarty Firth councillor Tamala Collier was contacted for comment.
