A Midlothian mum has spoken of her heartache after claiming bullies ruined her son's life to the point they were forced to move schools.
Toni Hemmings, 46, from Dalkeith, told how she would stay up crying at night after countless attempts to get the school to take action.
Jack Hemmings, 14, was at the school until February 2023 where she says he experienced a torrent of physical, emotional and homophobic abuse - including being targeted with vile phone calls out of school.
Midlothian Council claim that there are strict procedures in place and all guidance was followed in Jack's case, but mum Toni said she had no option but to take her son out of school.
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Speaking to Edinburgh Live mum Toni said: "It started the first day he was there because he was frightened to go to school.
"They used to make horrible phone calls with homophobic abuse and they took pictures of Jack and created fake Facebook profiles and then bully him on the account.
"They kicked him, punched him and pushed him down the stairs. I emailed the school dozens of times.
"He has permanent damage on his knees from how many times they pushed him over.
"We had meetings and they tried to put safe spaces in place and intervene but nothing worked."
Toni described her son Jack as an outgoing, kind, sweet boy who has autism and can sometimes struggle to process his emotions and deal with difficult situations.
The mum believes that his self-confidence and struggles to communicate were amplified by facing cruel bullies on a daily basis.
She said: "The school used to tell him to stay inside the school so they could protect him which was ridiculous and he was still getting targeted inside the school.
"He became more and more afraid to leave the house in case he saw them on the way to school and felt frightened.
"One girl sprayed cleaning product in his face and hit him with her mobile phone which caused a big lump on his head, she was suspended for two weeks when she got back he was made to sit in a room with her while she apologised which terrified him.
"After this incident, I phoned the police and they came to the house and said that Midlothian Council has a no police in school policy so they couldn't go in and speak to the group
"I found that a lot of the time the school did nothing and when they did do something it just made it worse."
After the February break, Toni had enough and after giving the school one last chance to sort out the incidents had to take Jack out of school for his own safety.
The mum of four explained: "The school tried to isolate him and it got so bad that he had to be chaperoned everywhere around the school.
"Just after the February break I marched into the school and said to the teachers I am holding you responsible for keeping my child safe.
"It was okay for a couple of days but it just spiralled from there. On his last day there he was kicked in the stomach so I took him out.
"I had to remove him from the school as it got too much. The school didn't even acknowledge my email letting them know I was taking him out of school."
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"I asked the school if it was a Jack problem or a school problem but he has started a new school now and he is doing great. He is doing wonderful.
"At home, he still has panic attacks and he is still terrified if he sees any of them in the street.
"He wets himself and can get himself into a right state but recently he told me I'm actually looking forward to going to school instead of being frightened which broke my heart, I never thought we'd get to that point again."
A Midlothian Council spokesman said: “Like all of our schools, we take allegations of bullying extremely seriously.
"There are strict procedures in place, all of which were followed in this instance. Indeed a huge amount of support and effort was put in place to address the parental concerns.
"It is not appropriate for us to comment in any further detail on issues affecting individual pupils. The school also has further help and support about bullying on its website for both pupils and parents.”
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