PARENTS of West Somerset College students involved in a mass walk-out have formed an action group to protest against the way they claim their children are being treated.
Members are looking to make a complaint to education standards body Ofsted about the number of detentions and punishments they say are being imposed on students, restricted use of toilets and lack of contact with teachers and governors.
Most of the children of the parents’ action group are among the 70 who have been suspended and at least three expelled, following the student protest.
Founder of the group, Samantha Sweetland, who has two daughters at the college, said: “I am sick and tired of the state of the school. I am fed up with trying to talk to them about the poor level of teaching, lack of safety and staff attitude towards the students. I think it’s time parents stood together.”
She asked: “Why is it OK to close the school due to lack of staff and go on strike, but not OK for students to stand up for their fellow pupils who have been sexually assaulted in the unisex toilets and give their own views on the way the school is being run?”
In a letter to parents, college Ms Doughty blamed the disturbance on a national trend instigated on social media encouraging students to refuse to attend lessons, protest and cause vandalism. She said that West Somerset College was the latest of over 50 schools to be affected in the last week.
Ms Sweetland, from Allerford, said that since last Monday’s walk-out, many parents had been in contact to support an organised protest. Some parents and pupils have spoken out about the reasons for the protest, including in messages to the Free Press.
A typical on-line post read: “The school can’t deal with any situation and their answer is to exclude children so they don’t have to deal with it.”
It added: “The school is failing every child who has no choice but to attend. How many students would there be if we had a choice of which school they went to? Not many.”
Another post claimed: “Teachers at the college seem to spend most of their time giving out detentions and punishing children and not focusing on their education. The lack of communication between parents and the school is ridiculous.”
Ms Sweetland said that parents had told her that excessive detention was causing major concerns.
“I myself have had problems for some months with the amount of detention my children were being given. One of my daughters had a detention for truancy for using the toilet between lessons. My other daughter got detention for bursting into tears in the classroom after her grandfather died.
“I told my daughter she had a right to protest as the school was not listening to students or parents views and gave her permission to take part in the walk-out. Now she has been suspended, which will go on her record and could affect her future career.”
“My 15-year-old daughter has asked me three times if we can move somewhere else so that she can get a proper education.”
She claimed that many parents have told her that they want to complain to the school mainly about students not being able to use the toilets and getting detention for trivial reasons, only to find that the complaints form has been taken off the website.
“I have been waiting two weeks for a complaints form and OFSTED have told me that I cannot lodge a complaint until I have actually complained to the school.”
Parents have planned a group meeting to decide on future action.
Some students refused to attended afternoon lessons on Monday and crowded into the college’s main quad area where one student climbed on to a roof to wave leaflets reading “Get predators out of our school” and “Bigger problems than uniform.”
The demonstration continued throughout the afternoon despite the efforts of the college authorities to break it up by setting off fire-alarms, and it was claimed that damage was caused during the incident.
College head teacher Nikki Doughty was invited to comment on the parents’ allegations.
After Monday’s incident Ms Doughty told the Free Press: “Some students chose to protest, having seen other such protests at other schools around the country on social media. This is a national trend.
“Some students were suspended from school. All suspensions were reasonable and proportionate and comply with legislation and guidance to schools. Teachers and staff will always listen to students but concerns need to be raised in the appropriate manner.”
Ms Doughty referred to her letter to parents in which she said the college had tried to avoid a mass walk-out by explaining to students the available methods of voicing their thoughts and concerns.
These included talking to tutors, heads of year, support staff, safeguarding teams, senior students or booking an interview with the head teacher.
“Despite this session, disappointingly, some students refused to attend lessons and congregated in the quad with no clear reason. To avoid the escalation of this we held a fire drill to return students to lessons and avoid further disruption to the school.
“A number of students did not follow safe fire drill procedures and still did not return to lessons. Some of these students caused damage to the school. We will contact these families individually.
“Please can I ask you to support us by checking your child’s technology for any messaging on social media encouraging protesting and discussing how to use appropriate methods to report things to adults at school. We appreciate your support.”
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