I would like some clarification here please

"The teachers... Their idea of punishment when I couldn't hide the bruises, was to give any assailant a three day holiday"

But then: "My head of year informed me, whilst I stood before him with several cuts and no small amount of bruising developing on my face, that if I couldn't find any proof that I hadn't shoved this kid, I would be permanently excluded, with no right of appeal."

Something doesn't fit here. Did your school tolerate bullying or not? Either the teachers would have hammered justice down umpteen times for what you claim happened to you in the first instance, or they would have looked the other way and / or given you a 'three day holiday' for the second instance?

I'm sorry, but until that is explained I'm inclined to agree with the above comments regarding your 'victim complex'
(King Nightmare, Mon 6 Aug 2012, 9:02, 1 reply)

A fair question
In the first, that's what they repeatedly told my folks - there was virtually no way to permanently exclude someone. Like the Capt Placid story linked to, they were big on buzzword laden plan involving at times the use of a timeout room for a few days so as to prevent them going around the school at break and lunch times, to suspensions being doled out with the more serious assaults.

When Keith did his number on me however that morning, the words timeout, suspension and exclusion featured nowhere in the discussion of punishment, only expulsion. Did they have a policy? Sure they did, it was even written in the welcome pack that was given just prior to me starting there. But that doesn't mean they followed it consistently however.

Consider that if they did follow it every time they would have had to remove 3 or 4 of the ringleaders to really stamp it out. That's an awful lot of black marks against them, enough perhaps that the local education authority might start paying attention if done at once or close together. Verses removing 1 person who up until that Spanish teacher and form tutor stepped looked to be bang to rights (the brother had a 'witness' don't forget) and would stop some of the pressure to remove the others.

Keith's brother was two years below us whereas the physical bullying I received was by people in my own year group (the only time older lads got involved was on one occasion where I was restrained so to allow the members in my year to take free shots).
(the_leander, Mon 6 Aug 2012, 10:15, closed)