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Parents Film Daughter, 11, Sobbing In Bid To Make School Act On Bullying

Parents Film Daughter, 11, Sobbing In Bid To Make School Act On Bullying

The youngster's parents asked if they could upload the video to social media and she replied: 'If it will make it stop'

Rebecca Shepherd

Rebecca Shepherd

The parents of a young girl have posted a heartbreaking video of her sobbing uncontrollably and barely able to breathe, in order to highlight the devastating effects that bullying can have.

Mum Natalie has to guide her daughter through breathing techniques used to control panic attacks as the 11-year-old attempts to tell her parents how she is being bullied.

The footage was posted on Facebook by her mum and dad in a desperate bid to get her school to take effective action.

According to Wales Online, Lee and Natalie Davies said they took the clip, with their daughter's permission, to show staff at Cyfartha High in Merthyr Tydfil, Cardiff.

Lee Davies/Natalie Davies/Facebook

The couple, who both work for the NHS, asked for their daughter to be moved away from bullies but they claim the school did nothing, which is why they posted the video to Facebook.

They say they have no regrets because since the video was posted, it has been viewed over 790,000 times and shared by more than 11,400 people - both locally and across the globe. Messages of support have come from as far as Australia and the USA.

Fortunately the school has now moved their daughter into a different form class, as originally requested.

The couple, who have two other children aged 15 and eight, said that last Friday there were 17 pupils, who had seen and been moved by the video, waiting for the year seven pupil as she arrived at school offering to walk in with and befriend her.

Describing how her daughter's panic attack came on after she had nasty messages on her phone via Snapchat from a group of girls who had been isolating and bullying her at school, 34-year-old Natalie said she 'went to pieces'.

"At the time I didn't know how bad it was because I was focused on calming her. She had never been like that before."

Natalie, a dental nurse, said problems started within the first two weeks of her daughter starting high school last month.

Lee Davies/Natalie Davies/Facebook

She claims that despite around 10 phone calls to the school and going in to speak to a teacher, no effective action was taken until they took the drastic step of posting the video to Facebook.

She said: "We were frustrated to be honest. You don't know how people are going to react when you put that on [Facebook]. There is a risk she could have got more bullied for it.

"We were very conscious of that, but at this point we had rung the school continuously. We were told by the teacher it was not up to her to move her. We wanted her to move form classes away from these children.

"We asked our daughter and she wanted us to do it because she wanted the bullying to stop. We would not have posted it to Facebook without her permission.

"We said to her: 'Look, we can put this on and see if it will help, but if you don't want us to we won't.' She said: 'If it will make it stop, OK, because nothing else is working.' We were all desperate.

"Originally, when it was filmed, the video was just to show the school. But when nothing was done and the bullying didn't stop, my husband said this has got to stop and let's do this because there are other children being bullied who won't speak out and maybe this will help."

Lee Davies/Natalie Davies/Facebook

Natalie said that after the video went viral the effect was instantaneous.

She was called to meetings at the school, spoke to a teacher who is also the school's child protection officer and her daughter has now moved classes.

"I thought ringing the school was a simple thing and would never have thought to do this but nothing was working," said Natalie.

"Because it went viral they had to take notice. It's a big and hard decision to put your child out there.

"On Friday when she went to school there were 17 children to walk in with her because of Facebook. It's been overwhelming. She's had support and spent all day with people saying 'tell me if you ever need me'.

"Posting that has had an incredible effect, going from someone not wanting to be her friend, to overwhelming support."

The little girl's dad, Lee, 37, an NHS manager, hopes the post may help other young people being bullied that talking about it can help.

"Me and my wife would like to thank everyone who got in touch with us and we are overwhelmed by the support that our daughter has been shown," he said.

In a joint statement Merthyr Council and Cyfartha High School told Wales Online: "Having met with the mothers of both of the children involved and been fully appraised of all necessary information, the school has been able to resolve the matter to the satisfaction of all concerned."

We're glad things are looking up for this little girl.

Featured Image Credit: Lee Davies/Natalie Davies/Facebook

Topics: Viral, UK News, Feels