Pupils kept home for a second day from Girls' Model School in Belfast as parent says situation 'is having a big impact'

A number of families were still keeping their children out of school on Friday, having withdrawn them from class on Wednesday.

One father has told the News Letter that he intends to send his daughter, 12, back on Monday, but if there are any further incidents then he will withdraw her permanently.

The current situation arose on Tuesday, when there was an incident the police describe as an "assault" at the controlled school in north Belfast.

According to DUP MLA Brian Kingston, who has spoken directly with police, it involved two ethnic minority pupils and two white pupils.

The police have said they are treating it as a "hate crime", and that they are also looking into another incident at the school in September.

The school have refused to say if any pupils have been disciplined.

Then when rumours surfaced on Wednesday that knives had been brought into the school – something the school and police say is untrue – parents took their daughters out of class.

Mr Kingston has said that "hundreds" of girls were withdrawn from the 1,200-pupil school.

This was followed by a protest at the school gates on Thursday by parents, many of whom described a group of girls "terrorising" other pupils.

The mother of one of the girls at the heart of Tuesday's fracas said her daughter had been attacked, and that the incident was being mischaracterised as a "hate crime".

She said on Friday that "most of the parents are not sending kids today back – they're still off".

She added: "I think the school has let the girls own with bullying. I think bullying has gone on in the school since September.

"It's having a big mental impact on their education.

"I've had to take a wee day off work as well to sit with her – she's sort of afraid to go out the door.

"I didn't realise how big the problem actually was. I didn't realise the impact the bullying has had on other kids [until] I heard other parents' concerns yesterday [at the protest]."

Another parent, Stuart Coates (47, from west Belfast) said his 12-year-old daughter also remained off on Friday.

"I can't keep her off indefinitely because, at the end of the day why should I be suffering and my child be suffering over the heads of [the girls responsible],” he said.

"What I can see is, going forward, the kids will have to go to school. Any more instances like this and I'll have no choice but to home-school. Because this is not happening.

"If more and more of these attacks are happening regularly in schools, we don't have any option but to bring our kids out of it.

"Why would we be letting our kids go there and endanger them?

"The kids shouldn't be losing out on their learning. Every day they're missing out on I don't know how many classes – five, six, sometimes seven classes over the whole day – over two days, that's 14 classes."

A statement was released in the name of principal Paula Stuart, on Thursday, saying: “The safety and well-being of all of our students remains our highest priority. We are following the robust, established processes and procedures, as set out by the Education Authority and continue to work closely with [it] and the Police Service of Northern Ireland PSNI.

“Due to an ongoing PSNI investigation, and in line with safeguarding procedures, I am limited in what I can say in relation to this incident...

“I would reiterate that many of the claims on social media are entirely inaccurate and ask for our school community’s support in helping to stop the spread of misinformation, which has significant potential to negatively impact our young people’s sense of safety and wellbeing.

“Our school remains committed to providing a safe, inclusive, and supportive learning environment for all our pupils.”