To whom it may concern,
My name is Jason Barnett, I’m a former teacher who leads a Safer Schools campaign group of over 150 families, mainly from the UK, that have sadly lost children to suicide or had children suffer serious harm as a consequence of bullying, physical and sexual violence in schools.
Over the last 5 years, the campaign has presented evidence of failures to properly address bullying and violence concerns both within schools and Government that have allowed numerous harms and deaths to occur, demonstrating that school may not always be the best and safest place for every child to be. It has been accepted in the High Court, that the UK Government has failed to ever investigate the evidence, despite numerous requests to do so.
The alleged failures have led to a call for a public inquiry into the issues, as well as the involvement of the United Nations Special Procedures. This involves the UN currently assessing information and evidence, that demonstrates that in many cases, due to bullying and violence in UK schools, many children are potentially being unlawfully and unnecessarily left at risk of serious harm and death (All of the facts can be verified through the website https://publicinquirynow.co.uk where further more detailed evidence in support of this statement can also be found).
With this in mind, I would like to express my concern that many parents feel pressured due to the use of various school attendance enforcement and interventions, including threat of prosecution/fines or School Attendance Orders, to ensure attendance in school. This is the case when evidence in certain situations clearly demonstrates, that attendance would put a child at serious risk of harm and death. In many of these cases, parents whose children have been seriously harmed due to bullying and violence in school have requested a leave of absence from school. The leave has been requested until such a time that they are satisfied that reasonable and appropriate safety measures have been put in place, to protect their child from further harm and that their child is well enough to attend. These are appropriate steps in line with the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the parents role as the primary individual responsible for the best interests of the child.
All public authorities under articles 2 and 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 have a legal obligation and duty to ensure that reasonable steps are taken to ensure that the right to life of all children is protected and that children are not subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment. With this in mind, I would request that all information provided regarding bullying and violence in this case, is taken into consideration by anyone making any potential decision regarding school attendance enforcement and interventions, including threat of prosecution/fines or School attendance orders. I would also ask that appropriate decisions regarding any potential sanctions are made in light of this statement and the information in relation to bullying and violence in this present case, that has been made available to you.
Yours sincerely
Jason Barnett
Safer schools campaign Lead
Founder Fight for the fatherless in action