Bullies cut my disabled daughter’s hair...but the school has done nothing
A FIVE-year-old disabled girl has had her hair cut six times by bullies, her angry mother said yesterday.
Melissa Booth has been targeted since starting at primary school in September.
Her mother Samantha Fleming said the bullies also tripped her daughter in the playground, leaving her covered in bruises.
Melissa was born with microcephaly, a condition in which the circumference of the head is smaller than normal. She has trouble communicating and struggled to tell her mother about the abuse.
Samantha, 34, of Chaddesden, Derby, says staff at Cherry Tree primary school accused her of cutting her own daughter’s hair.
She said: “It’s awful what my daughter has been through and no one seems to be doing anything to stop this.
“She was so excited to start school in September and that it would be a fresh start after she was targeted by bullies at her nursery.
“Because of her condition, she struggles to get things across. She would get really frustrated because she knew what she wanted to tell me but couldn’t get the words out.
“They first cut her hair in October and she did manage to tell me what had gone on, although she was reluctant. Teachers just told the pupil how dangerous scissors were.
“It’s happened every few months since. She was also coming home with bruises and the teacher told me she had fallen over in the playground but Melissa later told me she had been tripped up by other children.
“Her hair was all the way down her back and now it’s just below her shoulders. “It’s heartbreaking.” Melissa was also born two holes in her heart.
Samantha and partner Jason are full-time carers for Melissa with and her younger sister Ella, three, who was born with a chromosome disorder, as well as their youngest child, twoyear-old Wyatt.
A school spokeswoman said: “We take any report of alleged bullying extremely seriously and we will continue to investigate the matter.”