Month: July 2019

3 vulnerable School Children have died since June with Bullying and a failure for the system to address the concerns being a central issue In 2 if not all 3 cases. Alongside these deaths there have been numerous cases in the press where children such as the Syrian refugee Jamal Hijazi and Dominic Mizon a young boy with Autism have both been seriously assaulted after alleged safeguarding complaints to schools and then OFSTED in the latter cases were allegedly ignored.

All these cases raise questions as to whether or not the schools, OFSTED and DfE complaints systems and the issues I’ve presented time and again are much more widespread than I’ve been able to evidence so far. I state again for the record that unless action is taken we are going to see an increase in serious injuries and deaths where a failure for safeguarding concerns to be dealt with was a contributory factor

In the case of Shukri Abdi (Right of picture) a 12 year old girl found in a river and Sam Connor (left of picture) who tragically committed suicide by laying down in front of a train 2 days ago, it was alleged that both had been bullied relentlessly but complaints not addressed. Christopher (centre of picture) also drowned recently and it has been suggested by some but only on social media that he had been a victim of unresolved bullying complaints previously.

When those in power and who are responsible for the safety of children in schools are fully aware that the systems for protecting children are broken but refuse to act, as far as I see this constitutes acts of omission as well as negligence. The question is how many deaths and serious incidents will it take for those requested to act, to do so?

Recently a 12 year old refugee girl from Somalia lost her life, tragically drowned in what her family believed was an incident related to bullying at her school. The saddest part of this story is that her Mother has said that she had raised concerns on a number of occasions about bullying and asked for information and feedback on her concerns so that she could better protect her child from harm in the future.

Those concerns were never addressed in any way by the school according to the Abdi family, as a consequence this young girl lost her life as a potential consequence of the same flaws in the system that Ministers and MP’s have been consistently informed are likely to result in loss of life if left unaddressed.

What has happened to Shukri Abdi has destroyed a family and broken a community and the system that has failed Shukri and has and is potentially failing so many other children and their families across the UK, needs to be investigated and the flaws addressed so that this can never happen to any other child again.

For once lets not be a nation that are reactive to a tragedy but proactive to prevent one. Evidence clearly illustrates that something is building that is about to explode. Ministers, MP’s Individuals and authorities with the power to influence or make the simplest of changes to a safeguarding system that it is clear is flawed should do so before it’s too late.

The fact that I am one voice doesn’t change the truth that the evidence shows children’s lives are at risk. I will continue to do all I can to raise the issues, while presently it seems there are many who are willing to do everything but that. Not only will history judge those who choose not to act but so will no doubt the families of anyone who suffers harm because of safeguarding failures that could have been avoided.