'Racist bullying is making my son physically sick'

Madison Wray says her son is sick every morning because he does not want to go to school

A mother says her 12-year-old son has faced months of racist bullying at school, with a WhatsApp group set up to target him.

Madison Wray said her son was making himself sick every morning before going to Aldercar High School in Derbyshire.

She has contacted police after she said students threatened to stab him, kicked and punched him, and used racist language towards him.

The school said it would not tolerate bullying and racism.

'Malicious communications'

Mrs Wray said her son had been attacked 30 times in 22 weeks.

She said she found out about a WhatsApp group of 27 students which monitored what time he left his home.

"He comes home every lunch for his safety and then he finds it doubly as hard to go back to school," she said.

"I left school at his age because of a lot of racism. All the names I got called, he gets called too.

"It hurts that my children are going through what I went through.

"I need it to stop now."

Mrs Wray said although she has had a lot of meetings with the school, she is "not seeing any improvement" and feels "they could step up more".

She said: "The children who have said racist comments were given a two-day exclusion. I don't think that is discipline.

"But when someone vandalised the school toilets with racist comments, they were permanently excluded."

Derbyshire Police said two children have been given a "restorative justice disposal" in relation to a malicious communications offence, and another child has been "dealt with by way of intervention work with the specialist youth offending team".

The family has regular meetings with their son's school but Mrs Wray feels teachers could "step up more"

Mrs Wray said the bullying began last year.

She said: "He started on 7 September; by the 10th we had the first racist comment made."

Mrs Wray said her son - who has been bullied in person and through messages - was told by pupils that her family "need to go back to Pakistan" and his dad was "part of ISIS".

He has also been pinned against a wall, kicked, and punched in the stomach, she said.

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Clare Hatto, head teacher at Aldercar High School said: "Whenever we are made aware of allegations of bullying or racism, we investigate and take proactive action, as necessary.

"We are aware of the concerns Mrs Wray has raised and have been having regular meetings with her to discuss them, and our response to them.

"We will continue to work with the family over these issues."

Derbyshire Police added: "Officers have also worked with the school to deliver lessons in relation to the types of incident that have been reported."

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