AS a mumma I’m heartbroken, angry and hurting that as parents we cannot protect our precious child at school, and the education system doesn’t seem to care about the bullying epidemic that is only getting worse as students are given more and more power.

Our kind, creative, happy boy is losing the spark in his eyes, and the smiles are rare these days.

Bullying is not new to him unfortunately. He has always been proud to show who he is and share his love for music, writing and being his unique and gorgeous self unapologetically. He will proudly tell you he dreams of being just like his hero Ed Sheeran.

But this year the taunting has become next level, and it is now resulting in him being assaulted. Our kind and beautiful boy is feeling defeated, depressed and scared — words that have never been in his vocabulary before.

This week I had to explain to him why I cannot hold his hand inside the school anymore. That broke my fucking heart. An 11-year-old boy who is still happy and proud to hold his parents’ hands is virtually unheard of.

We now have to walk our child into school and to his classroom each day, and he is escorted from the classroom to our car every afternoon by a member of staff.

Our son has been strangled — yes, STRANGLED — multiple times in the school yard. He has been kicked, punched, spat on and ganged up on at playtimes.

Teachers have said things like:
“Take the fight to the front of the school.”
“Stop being a baby.”
And the one that made my jaw drop when she didn’t intervene while he was being attacked:
“I didn’t feel safe to step in and stop the fight.”

He is being called words he has never even heard before — “femboy”, “pedo”, “creeper”, and “homo”.

Last week when his dad stepped in to pick our son up with me, the bullying kids made up a fake story about his dad assaulting and abusing them and reported it to the principal. We then received an email from the principal who believed the students and their mates over us and the adults who were present — threatening police action if we continue to “threaten, bully or harass students.”

Are you bloody kidding me?

Yesterday, completely fed up with our son not feeling safe or happy, we gave him and his sister a mental health day off school.

For seven beautiful hours, his smile returned. He laughed. He felt free again.

But it all came crashing down last night when he was getting ready for bed. The stomach pains came back. He became anxious and worried, and I was sending my child to bed in tears.

This morning he got dressed in his uniform and prepared for the day ahead, while creating exit strategies to keep himself safe — not just in the playground, but in the classroom.
His own classroom!
Our son doesn’t even feel safe in class.

I walked him up and stood at the back of the area where they sit waiting to go to class. Less than a metre in front of him, these boys were punching, kicking, swearing and refusing to sit in line.

There were two teachers on duty. They did nothing.

Another child bravely told the boys to stop, and my son’s number one bully responded with:
“Meet me here at lunchtime.”
Do we look at homeschooling?
Do we change schools?
Or do we keep doing this drop-off, pickup, chaperone routine every day?

How do we help this beautiful boy feel safe again?
Confident to be himself again?
Not living in fear every single day?

Sadly I know this isn’t a one-off. Our son isn’t alone in this.

So how do we, as people, actually stop this and create safer environments for our kids?