Related Articles
Bianca Austin tweeted that her 16-year-old daughter Mallayla had “finally” punched a girl, who had been tormenting her for weeks, to her 11,000 followers.
It said: “After weeks of being bullied by the same girl, numerous phone calls to the school and nothing changing, today when being called names my daughter finally punched the bully in the face. Proud mum.”
The post has since been viewed 2 million times and has attracted praise from social media users, although some have criticised her for condoning violence.
But the Swindon mother indicated that this was the end result of weeks’ worth of torment, including both physical and verbal abuse, aimed towards her daughter that continued despite multiple attempts to get the school to take action.
She added that she felt that schools were often powerless to prevent this kind of behaviour and while she knows that violence isn’t always the answer, she was proud of her daughter for standing up for herself.
In another Tweet, she wrote: “I told the school how proud of her I was for standing up for herself when they rang up to tell me Mallayla would be sanctioned for retaliating violently. No child should be able to make school hell for another child day in and day out.”
In an update a day later, Mrs Austin revealed her daughter had been handed an in-school exclusion
“2 days in-school exclusion for my daughter whilst the other child has gone to class because she was only verbally abusive,” she said.
Adding: “No wonder bullying is never stopped in schools.”
Many agreed that Mrs Austin should be proud and shared similar stories after feeling failed by their own school’s safeguarding processes.
One person wrote: “It’s bad when you have to teach your kids to be violent just to be safe, my daughter is going through something similar.”
Another added: “Well done to your daughter, mine did the same after I warned the school she had my full backing to retaliate.”
Although some did question the use of violence, one person said: “I understand your–and her–frustration but hitting someone in the face is never o.k. Not.Ever. There are other options–lots of them. And if you think that this will stop the bullying, you are wrong–it will probably escalate it.”
