Parents of children at an Auckland school say they're incredibly frustrated due to a what they say is lack of action on bullying.
Marc Guillaume says his stepson has been bullied over the past two-and-a-half years at Manurewa's Reremoana School and is now scared to attend.
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He told Newshub his son had been punched, kicked, physically pushed to the ground and recently attacked during a game of football.
"Reremoana are soft on bullying, they have no detention policy and prefer to discuss the issues with bullies, whilst children continue to be punched, kicked, thrown to the floor and have bricks thrown at them," he said.
"Our child gets a kicking every week."
Another parent, who wanted to be anonymous, told Newshub their child has also been bullied at the school with little action from staff.
"We've seen the deputy principal and the principal about [the bullying] and we were told 'oh yes we've got this special group of people who can come in and look at the class, see what's going on,'" they told Newshub.
"It sounded really, really good and they could talk about bullying as a whole, not mentioning anyone in particular, but nothing really happened and it just continued on."
Parents are now so frustrated by the lack of action they're protesting outside the school to mark the final day of Bully Free Week.
The anonymous parent took part in the protest on Friday and said staff watched from afar, but did not approach.
School principal Julie Cowan wouldn't comment on any specific case due to privacy concerns, but says they're doing their best to eliminate bullying at the school and have implemented a wide range of programmes to assist with teaching positive behaviours.
"Our school works very hard to address issues relating to unkind, mean, unsafe and bullying behaviours," she said.
"Senior staff work carefully through every instance of bullying or anti-social behaviour to understand all perspectives on what has occurred and why.
"As well as taking actions within the school, we then raise concerns directly with families in the hope that the school and family can also work collaboratively to support students and/or address behaviour issues."
The Ministry of Education told Newshub it has been informed of the complaints, and emphasises that "bullying is not ok".
"Reremoana School has policies and procedures in place to address bullying which are regularly reviewed by the school," deputy secretary sector enablement and support Katrina Casey told Newshub.
"We will continue to support the school, providing guidance for as long as it's needed. We expect every school to create a culture that promotes positive behaviour, wellbeing and reduces behaviours that disrupt learning."
Newshub.
