Real Life

My bullying nightmare

‘I thought I was going to die’

After going through four years of terror Brodie Bunt was forced to change schools to escape.

Most of us look back at our primary school days with memories of innocent fun. But Brodie Bunt, 12, feared that once she walked through the school gates she would become the target of a relentless bullying campaign, which soon escalated from taunts to physical abuse.

Brodie’s mother Vicky fights back tears as she describes the four years of terror she claims her young daughter endured.

“Primary school should have been the happiest time of Brodie’s life,” Vicky says, sadly. “But bullies made it her worst nightmare.”

Her parents insist that one particularly vicious attack forced them to turn to the police for help.

“Brodie was attacked with a pair of scissors held to her throat, then the same bully cut off 15cm of another girl’s hair!” Vicky tells, shaking her head in disbelief.

Vicky and Brodie’s father, Troy, demanded the bully be removed. But the police were unable to charge the 10-year-old girl and she was allowed to remain in class.

Sadly, Brodie’s family’s pleas to halt the campaign of bullying at her school failed. Brodie was eventually removed from the school, with her defeated mother believing the bullies had won.

But six months later, as Brodie, now 12, settles into life at a new school, a furious Vicky says she’s fighting back and is condemning local education chiefs who she claims failed to protect her daughter.

For the full story, see this week’s issue of Woman’s Day (on-sale May 21).

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