An Aberdeen mum and her 13-year-old daughter have spoken for the first time after an 18-month campaign of terror by bullies at a city secondary school.
In one incident the S2 pupil, who is now home-educated “for her safety”, was encircled and viciously beaten by multiple girls while others filmed and cheered.
The Press & Journal has seen several of the graphic videos, which were shared on social media, showing the child lying on the ground bleeding while onlookers shouted “kick her in the face”.
Why this child was singled out is unknown but, according to the National Bullying Helpline, this is just one example of multiple calls they receive each week involving children being attacked to provide social media content.
Now “safely away from them”, the Aberdeen family are sharing their story in the hope schools will take more stringent action to prevent – and to deal with – bullying, and violence for views.
‘I was upset every day at school,’ said 13-year-old Karina
When Meile’s daughter started at St Machar Academy she was hugely optimistic that secondary school would go just as well as primary.
“Every school has its issues but until Karina set foot in St Machar she was a happy child… a good student. That changed very quickly.”
Describing a torrent of verbal and physical abuse lasting a year and a half, she said her daughter regularly came home with smashed glasses.
“I went to the school and asked them to help put an end to this. They were passing her notes in class, hitting her… you name it.
“And I was foolish, I feel like I trusted them and in doing so lost the trust of my daughter. She knew it wasn’t going away but I hoped some action would be taken.
“I would go out the class and come back to a note calling me fat,” Karina said. “I was upset every day.”
Following countless incidents and multiple encouragements to return to school, Meile says Karina did return to school property but would lock herself in the toilets all day.
“I had a call once asking where she was but she was in school hiding,” the self-employed businesswoman said.
‘Whole school’ saw videos of violent attack
Drastic action had to be taken, however, after the “worst incident of all”.
Around nine months ago, during morning break at school, Karina was encircled by more than a dozen pupils beside the school gates.
One girl after another began hitting, kicking, and grabbing her hair, all to raucous cheers from the gathering crowd.
We have watched multiple videos captured during the attack, subsequently shared online in Snapchat groups.
Karina believes “the whole school saw the videos”.
Extremely graphic in nature, it is among the most distressing footage we have seen involving children.
To protect the identities of all the children involved we will not share the footage or include names.
However, what follows is the shocking transcript of what occurred.
Kids vie for best angles while crowd cheers
One girl paces the circle, capturing the attack from all angles for her video, while her peers scream and laugh.
Two boys stand with hands in pockets while a third boy films. Shouts of “get her legs… do it!” are heard before two girls join in, cheering on the bully.
“Go [blank] go… get her. Kick her legs.”
When she does begin kicking, jubilant cheers erupt.
“Weeeeyyyyy,” they scream as though this is sport.
In a momentary reprieve, Karina looks at one of the crowd.
“What the f***’s your problem?”, shouts the onlooker.
Another spits, “Don’t blame me you f****** s******.”
Left bleeding, a third girl grabbed Karina’s hair
Just as Karina takes a breath, another girl begins an onslaught of punches.
A third girl weighs in, grabbing Karina’s hair until her scalp bleeds.
One of those filming tells the main protagonist to “get up off the floor and pull her hair.”
A second bystander yells “If [blank] doesn’t do it I will. Just knee her in the face. I’ll f*** up her nails.”
As attack ended, bystanders urged girl gang to ‘go again’
All the time, Karina tries to defend herself.
The crowd heightens their shouts and screams as she does so, willing the teenage bully back on her feet.
“Get up [blank]. Get up. Stand up and get her.”
Now directed to Karina, one girl says “Let her up you f****** freak.”
The same voice then urges her friend, now back on her feet while Karina is on the floor holding her head, to “kick her in the face.” Which she does. More than once.
The video ends with jeers of “go again… again,” followed by laughs.
Then the most chilling line of all: “Do you want me to film it, I’ll hold your bag,” from the mouth of a young girl.
‘I felt like I couldn’t breathe,’ said Karina
Speaking about the attack, Karina says she was terrified and was left unable to breathe properly.
“It was really scary. My stomach, head, and arms were really hurt.
“But the worst was feeling like I couldn’t breathe. One of my friends went to get help but it took about half an hour. ”
“Why? Why did it take so long for an adult to get to her during the school day when everyone was watching? Something is very wrong,” Meile added.
In a previous P&J report, child safeguarding expert Jeanette Craig said Aberdeen schools were “turning a blind eye” to bullying, adding that the “system is failing” children.
‘Attacking and filming is a trend on the rise,’ says bullying charity
And founder of the National Bullying Helpline, Christine Pratt, says her organisation is now being called “two or three times a week” about horrific acts of violence filmed and uploaded to social media.
“It is a trend, absolutely,” she said. “But it’s a triple whammy that schools need to look at.
“One is the beating itself, the other is the act of filming it. Both of these are horrendous for the victims. However, the third element is the fact that more and more we are seeing a trend of bystanders – and there are always bystanders – feeling unable to report this.
“I had one case where the incident happened in November and the school didn’t know until January. This means all children involved internalised this over Christmas and New Year. This causes embitterment.”
She believes removing phones during school hours would help.
“Often these things take place during the school day, fuelled by this desire to post online. If schools removed phones during school hours it would certainly go a long way towards eliminating this element of these incidents.”
‘We were made to feel like the problem, not the bullies,’ mum claims
Meile now wants Aberdeen City Council to look at bullying “across the board”.
“Nothing can tell me this is an isolated incident at just one school,” Meile said. “More must be done.
“When my daughter was too scared to return to school, crying every day and even self-harming, I was under so much pressure for her to go back, I put pressure on her, it made us feel like we were the problem not the bullies.
“The final straw came on November 12th when she brought home a note saying she was fat. I removed her there and then.”
It’s a sentiment shared by other parents.
The mother of a Lochside Academy pupil said their school never lived up to its “zero-tolerance” bullying policy after her daughter was “vilely attacked”. She too removed her daughter from school for her safety.
‘Home school is the best decision we’ve made’, Meile says
Meile believes home education – despite financially impacting her family – is now the best way forward for her daughter.
“It was actually one of my clients – a teacher – who told me that I could home-school my daughter. I have since made a formal application to do so and she hasn’t returned to St Machar.
“Just last week I received a letter from Aberdeen City Council about her attendance but I told them until I know what action has been taken, and how the bullies have been dealt with, we won’t even consider my daughter returning.
“She is like a different girl now. I’m just lucky I work for myself, not every family will be as fortunate. It’s had a massive impact on our family in every way.
“And what’s happened to the bullies… I don’t know because the school won’t tell me.”
A spokeswoman for Aberdeen City Council said: “We are aware of the incident within the school and are working with the pupil and their family to resolve this.
“We do not excuse violence or bullying in any of our schools.”
You can also read:
‘I don’t want to live any more’: Bridge of Don Academy mum opens up on daughter’s bullying ‘hell’
Why is nothing being done about bullying epidemic in north-east schools?
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