David Farrar: I suspect the bullying has stopped

The Herald reports:

An Adelaide mother who stormed a private school and threatened to “slit” the throat of a student who allegedly bullied her daughter has been forced to face court.

On February 3 the 31-year-old mother burst into a classroom full of 12-year-old’s at St Paul’s College in Adelaide and launched into a violent tirade directed at her daughter’s alleged tormentor.

The enraged mother’s actions were caught on camera, where she was heard yelling: “You ever f****** mess with my daughter again I’ll slit your f****** throat.”

“You want to f****** go bitch? You want to f****** go? You ever f****** talk to my daughter again.” …

The woman told 7News that her daughter had suffered a lengthy campaign of bullying and she had tried to raise the issue with the school, “begging” them to help.

“I don’t want my daughter to be another statistic. I don’t want to have to bury my child,” she said.

“She was crying, she was devastated that this child told her to go and hang herself.”

“That is a breaking point for any parent … I went into survival mode, and protective mode. I did let loose, unfortunately (it) was a side, I don’t show very often. But that was a tipping point for that day.”

She said her daughter had been driven to self-harm by a 12-month period of bullying and she and her husband had been trying to get the school to intervene.

They had driven the girl to school to shield her from the abuse.

“I did everything in my power as a parent,” she claimed.

“The school has been negligent on their behalf… They have ignored all aspects about what we stated about the bullying with our daughter.

“I have stated time and time again to the school that we are begging. We begged for help. We begged.”

It goes without saying that the mother should not threaten to slit throats. She will face consequences for that.

But the school should not escape blame. I can sympathise with a parent who sees their kid bullied every day for weeks and months and is worried they will kill themselves due to the bullying. I can understand how a parent might snap as they are desperate to protect their child. The school should have ensured this was not happening.

And I tell you one thing. I suspect the girls who were doing the bullying, will not do so in future!

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.