Oranga Tamariki – the children’s ministry – says it hasn’t found any evidence to support claims of bullying and sexual assault at a local primary school.
The finding has angered one parent.
Macleans Primary School came under fire recently after a parent went to police to report an incident of sexual assault on her young son by another student.
It was alleged that a group of senior school students had threatened four junior school students – ‘Pull down your pants or we will kill you”.
One of the students is then claimed to have sexually assaulted a younger student.
A parent who asked not to be named said her son told her about the bullying and said his friend had been touched inappropriately by one of the bullies.
She said when the incident was reported to the school, nothing was done and the bullying continued.
“We took all this information to the headmaster, horrified obviously, and all the school did was ask my son to identify the older students involved, which he did. The headmaster spoke to the older boys and asked, ‘did you do it?’ and they said ‘no’ and the school considered the matter closed.”
The case was passed on to Oranga Tamariki who launched an investigation into the allegations.
Oranga Tamariki has looked into the claims and found no supporting evidence of bullying or sexual assault, says Dee McManus-Emery, Oranga Tamariki Regional Manager, south Auckland.
Macleans Primary principal Brian Bayly says, “The safety and wellbeing of our children and young people is our top priority. Oranga Tamariki has completed an assessment of concerns raised with them and has found no evidence of bullying or sexual assault.
“As a school we work very hard to address matters in line with best practice. We also work very hard to equip our students with a broad range of knowledge and skills – including social and educational – to give them excellent foundations that will enable them to be ‘the best that they can be’, as citizens of our school, this community and in their future lives. We thank our school community for their continued support.”
The parent who asked not to be named was approached for comment on the findings.
“My son was bullied daily at Macleans Primary and was very distressed. The school failed to take my concerns seriously and after he identified the children responsible, the bullying intensified,” she told the Times.
“Due to the lack of support from the school, I moved my son to another school and am very happy with my decision. Neither my son nor I have been contacted to discuss what happened and so their conclusion that nothing occurred is farcical.”
