Kids taken out of school

We just didn’t feel safe leaving her there. She’s been removed just because there’s been nothing done about it.’ JOHN CRAWFORD

unit, pull your hair,’’ he said.

An incident report released under the Official Information Act said a teacher aide fell asleep while supervising her.

A separate report says the family made a police report about bruising incidents in March. Police visited the school, and spoke with principal Sally Haughton and the unit’s head of department, it says.

Board of trustees chairwoman Amanda Malu said the school sought specialist assistance from the Ministry of Education, and had worked with the family and staff to address issues. It had also undertaken a review of the unit to ‘‘provide more detailed information about the management’’.

Principal Sally Haughton said the unit was ‘‘over-staffed’’ at the time.

However, the girl’s parents felt the unit was under-staffed and had an ‘‘unsettled and unhappy’’ culture.

Her father said they gave the school the benefit of the doubt for too long. ‘‘We pulled her out in September [2016] ... we should have pulled her out in May. We should’ve said: ‘We’re out of there’.’’

Haughton said the school worked with the ministry to provide better infrastructure and resourcing for the student, and brought in a psychologist.

The review provided a lot of information about ways to improve, she said.

Holly Reed’s stepfather, John Crawford, said there was an ongoing ‘‘massive investigation’’.

Holly has been removed from the school. ‘‘We just didn’t feel safe leaving her there.’’

Crawford had not been informed of any punishment to the girls who bullied Holly.

‘‘She’s been removed just because there’s been nothing done about it.’’

Haughton declined to comment on what punishment students received for bullying Holly, and refused to release a report which investigated the incident on the grounds of privacy.

Haughton said the school learned an ‘‘enormous amount’’ from the process.

The school was instigating a new tool to restrict social media use during the day, she said.

A former head of department of the school’s special needs unit left the school after filing a personal grievance. A friend of the former head of department said bullying at the school was ‘‘a systemic problem’’, among both students and teachers.

The former teacher had a mental breakdown and had not returned to teaching because she was ‘‘psychologically damaged’’.

‘‘When you speak to her, you can see in her eyes she’s fearful of that place and that culture. It’s sad, it’s a really sad thing to see. It’s sort of become a wild thing where the fittest survive.’’

Malu would not comment on former staff members or pupils.

‘‘We do not consider it appropriate ... the safety and privacy of the girls in our care has to be my primary concern.’’

Malu found Haughton and her leadership team very responsive to concerns raised about the school. ‘‘The difficulty is, sometimes things just do not happen quickly enough for the outside world.’’