My 11 year old son, Raheem Bailey, has faced racial and physically abuse, as well as more generic bullying about his height among other things, since he started Abertillery learning community in September 2021.
Although he had mentioned a few incidents of people being mean to him recently, I did not realise the extent of what he was going through until an incident this week.
On Monday, Raheem called me in tears whilst I was at work, saying that he’s being bullied and that the teacher threatened him with detention despite him being the one that’s getting picked on.
After work, I attended the school and informed them that all this needed to stop. I was then reassured that everything would be handled by the Tuesday morning.
On Tuesday morning break time, Raheem was attacked and beaten by a group of children whilst in school. He was pushed to the ground and then repeatedly kicked.
Consequently, Raheem made a desperate attempt to leave the school grounds in order to escape the situation. I received a phone call from Raheem and then the school informing me of the incident. The school told me that the ambulance wouldn’t arrive for two hours, but advised me not to drive Raheem to A&E myself. Raheem, his baby brother and I were taken to a minor injuries unit by the school bus, despite them knowing that his injury was severe.
We spent the next five hours waiting for an ambulance to transfer us to the location where he would undergo surgery, in Swansea, 50 miles away from his home and school.
As time rolled on, it became more apparent that the possibility my son was going to lose his finger was a real one. The doctors then confirmed this was likely.
I had to explain this to him while he sat there in agony.
After 6 hours of surgery to save it, which was ultimately unsuccessful, his finger had to be amputated. From the day of the incident until now Abertillery learning community have not reached out to me to check on his well-being.
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