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The extent to which the Government are failing children when it comes to how the laws and policies allow bullying and violence in schools that has led to suicides and harm to be ignored, is still not totally clear. Evidence is emerging that the extent of harm and deaths is much greater than at first thought and how far back historically the failings go, looks to have possibly been underestimated.

Given that there has never been a public appeal for families to come forward with evidence and yet already over a 100 families who have lost children or had them seriously harmed as a consequence of bullying and violence in schools have become part of the campaign group with the vast majority doing so simply through a facebook invitation from the Campaign lead.

Evidence has emerged of the issues being raised in Government and Parliament at least back to the early 90’s. Evidence coming out of Northern Ireland is that there is an epidemic in terms of youth suicides related to bullying in schools. In the UK there is also clear evidence to show that sexual violence including incidents as serious as rape can easily be swept under the carpet and ignored by schools under the current laws and legislation. As we’re providing more and more evidence of the failings, instead of this resulting in Government Departments, MP’s and Ministers seeking the truth, they have chosen not to engage in any meaningful way and provide the answers to the necessary questions.

The campaign continues to hear from more and more families throughout the campaign and now the time has come for every question to be answered. It truly is worrying what a full investigation and appeal to families across the UK might uncover but a full investigation is the only way to prevent this happening to others in the future.

This is not a question meant to raise argument based on technicalities but just a common sense question meant to challenge those in power based on morals and the willingness to just do what’s right. When a number of MP’s have been consistently presented with information, that if acted upon has the power to prevent loss of life of children and to prevent families across the country from suffering but they choose wilfully not to act on that information, then when does that become Criminal negligence.

Going into 2020 after the recent General Election a meeting has been arranged in principle with Alex Cunningham the MP for Stockton North and will be held in Parliament with MP’s from across the UK in February of the New Year and we await confirmation of that from Alex’s office which was delayed before Christmas due to staff illness but other than that our families have been grateful for his pro active stance on the matter so far. The meeting will take place after a number of failures by numerous MP’s to engage in proposed meetings with the evidence and the campaign, when in doing so would undoubtedly have increased the opportunities to put things in place that would lower the risks of children taking their own lives or being harmed as a consequence of bullying and violence being ignored in schools.

The evidence we have shows that since the first meetings were proposed to MP’s and those invitations declined a number of children have been harmed or lost their lives with evidence to show this was as a result of the continued failure of MP’ to act to address a number of concerns.

We will now hope that with Alex Cunningham taking the lead in agreeing to meet with families and the campaign in Parliament, that as many MP’s as possible will finally accept invitations to meet at the same time. We hope that there never has to come a time, when the question of whether or not certain MP’s are Criminally negligent will have to be asked in relation to further deaths and incidents, now that this opportunity to change things is being presented in Parliament itself come the New Year.

On Friday Oct 25th 2019, parents and families from across the UK, that had lost children to suicide or had children seriously harmed, as a consequence of failures to address bullying and violence complaints in schools, launched a Safer schools campaign at Leeds Town Hall.

Having invited 20 Ministers and MP’s attend to hear from some of the grieving families and to learn how further deaths could be prevented in schools, as a group we were extremely upset and disillusioned that out of 20 Ministers and MP’s not one of those chose to attend.

Our Online Campaign group now includes over 100 families, 15 of those having tragically lost children. In the absence of Ministers and MP’s, the group represented by some of the families, presented a clear common sense solution to prevent this happening to any other children and families in the future. The presentation can be seen by watching the video linked below.

The story no one is telling. Why Parliament is ignoring bullying and suicide in schools.

We’ve now asked every MP across the UK to let us know when they would be available to meet families and representatives of the group and in the meantime, to agree to the following pledge:

If Elected, I pledge to work closely with the Safer Schools campaign and to support laws and policies that protect our children from bullying and violence in schools that ensure;

#1 Schools must all follow a National Code of Conduct/Practice for dealing with bullying and violence complaints.

#2 Schools must follow their written Bullying Policies by law

#3 Schools must record all incidents of Bullying and violence brought to their attention.

#4 All decisions in relation to Bullying and violence complaints must be appealable to at least one other independent body above the school and Governors.

#5 Details of outcomes of any bullying and violence complaints must be made available to the complainant from schools, Local Authorities, School Inspection bodies and Government Education departments.

This will be at least the 5th letter and opportunity many MP’s have been given to prevent families from losing children to suicide. We hope that this time they will act and make this commitment to ensure, that no family in this country ever has to face the loss of a child or have their child harmed, as a result of a failure to take this issue seriously again.

It’s getting harder and harder to ignore and make excuses for Individuals, when Parents across the UK continue to make contact with the campaign in relation to cases and stories of how their own children have been seriously hurt in schools and even suffered tragic loss of life, with the parents adamant that their safeguarding concerns and complaints of violence and bullying leading up to the incidents were dismissed, without any investigation by the authorities or those responsible for their children’s safety.

Many of these parents are expressing their frustrations that in twenty first century Britain, they have no one in Authority they feel they can turn to help keep their children safe. From the authorities to charities, to elected representatives, how does it end up where the only support is coming from an individual campaign that is willing to highlight a problem that so many others it seems, would prefer to ignore.

Together we’ll fight for the changes that these families and more importantly all children deserve and continue to build a network and community that demands answers from our elected representatives as to how many more children, they will allow to be hurt before they act to address flaws in a system that they accept has failed to keep children safe from harm already.

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.

I had felt that the main fight for Justice across the globe would involve dealing with injustices in some of the poorer regions of the world and had no idea that the most tragic injustices of our time would be unfolding in my home country.

Over the last few months I have heard more and more reports of violence in UK schools but more importantly I hear more and more how nothing is being done by those in power to address the issues. Hearing the frustrations of so many parents who feel they have no power to ensure that their children are safe in schools make me more determined to ensure that the system is changed for the better.

After years of raising the issue, my only request has been at the very least to have a few minutes with the relevant people in power particularly the Education and Shadow Education Ministers, the Children’s Commissioner and the Education Select Committee to present evidence of the issues and problems but more importantly the simple solutions.

I don’t know what it will take for those in power to place the safety and well being of our children above any other political considerations but day by day I’ll continue to raise the issues and in the meantime strive to learn more and more about what it will take to bring about a better and safer environment for all our children.