Father sues daughter's school for cost of self-defence lessons after claims she was bullied

A doting father is suing his daughter's school for the cost of self-defence classes after he claimed she was bullied.

The parent, who does not want to be named, has taken the bizarre step of issuing a small claims court order against Thorns Community College in Quarry Bank as a way of equipping his daughter 'with the necessary skills to protect herself'.

Andy Cox, principal at Thorns, said the school has received the court notification and will be 'acting on that in due course'.

According to the parent, after hearing his daughter had allegedly been bullied, he approached the school's head of inclusion.

After the issue escalated he went to Mr Cox, before progressing to the chairman of governors, Dennis Hodson.

But the parent claims his daughter has continued to be bullied on a daily basis so he enrolled her onto a self-defence class and attempted to reclaim the costs from the school.

The request for reimbursement has been refused however.

Now, with the support of a recently founded parents' support group, the parent has turned to the courts to try and claim back the £57.35 cost of the classes – and £25 court costs.

The interim chairman of Parents Against Bullying at Thorns, an anonymous group of parents, said: "This is thought to be the first case of its kind anywhere in the United Kingdom where a parent has been forced to take such drastic action due to the inability of the school's leadership to deal with a case of bullying.

"We have fully advised and supported the parent throughout his dealings with the school. If the case is successful, we will be encouraging other parents whose children are being bullied to take the same action.

"Hopefully this will force the college to address the bullying issue by a small minority of children who appear to act with impunity."

Mr Cox responded: "The claims made by the parent behind PABAT stem from an issue concerning a pupil which was dealt with swiftly and appropriately by staff earlier this year.

"It is important we protect this pupil, along with all other pupils at the school, and it is for this reason we will not be going into further detail on this matter.

"We have a zero tolerance policy on all kinds of issues including bullying, verbal abuse and racism. Like many other schools we have incidents to deal with, which are quickly and properly handled by staff.

"Young people will always test boundaries and these figures reflect our determination to instil tough, simple and effective sanctions where boundaries are crossed.

"We work with the police on a regular basis on all kinds of class work, as well as to deal with any incidents which arise in school. Rest assured we will continue to work with parents and pupils when incidents arise to make sure we all put the safety and the needs of children at Thorns first."