Bullying is a serious problem that has to be addressed with great caution as it may lead to children suffering terrible physical and psychological consequences their whole life. Being a victim of bullying results in low self-esteem, and parents of these children are not always aware what their kids are going through until it’s too late for something to be done.
Schools are trying hard to put a stop to this “phenomenon,” but as it turns out, some fail big in handling this problem, like the Merrill Academy in Derbyshire, UK, a boy named Nathaniel Dryden attends.
This boy has been the target of bullies most of his life. But it was in January of this year that things got out of control so much that Nathaniel ended up nearly losing his eye. Namely, as he was walking along the school hall one day, a boy punched him all of a sudden. The rest of the kids found that amusing, with one of them even filming the whole thing. Soon after, the video of Nathaniel being attacked was all over Facebook. That’s how his mom learned of the incident. She went to her son’s school and asked for the bully to be punished for what he did.
The principal assured her they will deal with the problem, but all they really did was suspend the bully for a few days. That’s when things turned even worse. The boy blamed Nathaniel for his suspension and decided to punch him again, but this time he did it so hard that Nathaniel’s glasses broke and a piece of glass ended inside his skin closely to his eye.
The injury was severe and blood could be seen all over the place. Poor Nathaniel was rushed to the hospital and doctors said he was lucky he didn’t lose his eye.
Nathaniel’s dad, Mike, said how his son is devastated and doesn’t want to get back to school again because he’s too afraid. He believes this all happened because the school, precisely the school principal, Paul Beedle, failed to stop the bullying and didn’t react properly the first time. He, on the other hand, assured Mike how the school dealt with the bully since Nathaniel ended up in the hospital with a huge scar.
Nathaniel’s parents don’t trust the school and asked from the police to investigate the matter. They are still investigating and no charges have been filed so far.
We honestly hope sweet Nathaniel will be able to put his ordeal behind and will be much happier in his new school.
As for the Merrill Academy, parents believe they are obviously not doing most of the things right. Soon after the incident with Nathaniel took place, three students have been assaulted in a racist incident. Back in 2019, one of this school’s assistant professors was charged with sexual assault of a child and was jailed for nine months.
It looks like all this school is interested in is preventing students from violating the dress code. Sadly, if that is all they care for and put the real problems aside, students will feel insecure and unprotected.