Perverts bombard girl, 13, with sleazy photos and texts after bullies post her ID online

Perverts bombarded a 13-year-old girl with explicit messages and photos after school bullies uploaded her Snapchat details on to adult forums.

They shared her Snapchat handle without her knowledge, portraying her as a woman in her twenties who was keen to exchange sex chat and pictures.

The torrent of abuse from the school bullies didn’t stop there. It also included threats to her life, being ostracised at mealtimes, offensive name calling and body shaming. According to her family, the Year 8 pupil was made to feel isolated and unsafe at school, and her mental health deteriorated rapidly.

Now the family of Tina (not her real name) have accused the school in Tameside, Greater Manchester, of failing to deal with the bullying and failing to offer the victim no support after she began to be bullied by up to 11 other pupils at the start of the year, leading her to develop anxiety and insomnia.

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Tina’s bullying ordeal culminated in her Snapchat handle being shared on adult forums without her knowledge, portraying her as a woman in her twenties who wanted to exchange sexual chat and pictures. Her family believe one of the bullies was responsible.

This led to her receiving contact requests from more than 80 men using the site, some of which contained explicit messages and photos. Her family reported the cyberbullying to Greater Manchester Police, who have recorded it as a crime.

Tina said she felt scared because “all these old men” were messaging her — even during school hours. “If you didn’t answer the message, it would be a picture,” she told the Manchester Evening News.

Her mother said: “I reported to Denton Community College at the end of January that my daughter was being bullied by 11 children, which led into the community and led to cyber bullying. The school did nothing, absolutely nothing. My daughter wasn’t going to school, she didn’t feel safe there. She had the bullies saying, ‘I’m going to knock your head six feet under’.

“One of them was setting sex chats up online in Tina’s name for all these perpetrators, and the school didn’t care. In one day she had 80 people contacting her. I got GMP (the police) involved in that, and they went into the school about it.”

She added: “It really, really impacts on her emotional wellbeing. She said she didn’t feel safe from her peers, and she didn’t feel safe from the staff. She ended up totally isolated in that school.

“She was a confident 13-year-old popular kid and now she’s the total opposite. She won’t even go out the front door now.”

In one instance the mother had to collect Tina from school when she suffered a panic attack after the family claimed she had been told she would be put in detention if she left a classroom where she had been placed alongside the pupils bullying her.

Despite the raft of incidents, her parents said no support was provided by the school, recently rated “inadequate” by Ofsted, and there was no offer to move her to another class or give her a part-time timetable to reintegrate her into lessons. One teacher merely described the abuse as “petty”, the family alleged.

Tina has been unable to attend school regularly since March, with her absences going unauthorised despite numerous GP letters being submitted to school leaders stating the issues she was experiencing were “affecting her mental health, confidence and energy”.

But the family said the college leadership refused to accept the GP’s information, because it was alleged he was not CAMHS (child and adolescent mental health services) trained.

“I got four GP medical letters saying she was in a low mood and her mental health was suffering — and the school refused to accept these GP letters,” the mother said. “They wouldn’t authorise her absences and they wouldn’t send her work home.

“I had to fight an appeal to get Tina into a different school for her own safety. It was absolutely abysmal and horrible what she’s been through.”

Tina’s parents even contacted local MP Andrew Gwynne in desperation after they felt their pleas for help were going unheard.

The Ofsted inspection, published in March, stated that a “considerable number of pupils” told inspectors that they did not feel safe at Denton Community College.

“Many parents and carers also expressed concerns about the safety and welfare of their children,” the inspection team added. “This is because of the high number of incidents of poor behaviour, along with the use of derogatory and discriminatory language, which are part of everyday school life for many pupils. Many pupils told inspectors that this language is accepted as the ‘norm’.”

After six months of struggling to get the education she needed, Tina was able to change schools. She said she felt happier to have “got away from it all”.

A spokesperson for Denton Community College said they took “all reported concerns regarding safeguarding and bullying very seriously” and were working to ensure pupils and parents with concerns had the support they needed.

They said: “Whilst we cannot comment on individual cases, we would like to reassure people that we take all reported concerns regarding safeguarding and bullying very seriously. Our post-Ofsted action plan has safeguarding as the most important priority and when such incidents are brought to our attention, they are investigated fully by the school.

“The school is working closely with the local authority and the improvement partner, as part of its improvement journey to ensure that students and families who have concerns, especially in relation to personal well-being or academic matters, are provided with the necessary support at the earliest opportunity.

“We are keen that students and parents should contact their head of year or a senior leader at their earliest convenience, so that we can resolve any concerns they may have.”