Pretoria – “They don’t understand – I just want to protect my child, but my hands are tied.”These were the words of Roelf van der Merwe, the stepfather of a 14-year-old pupil at the Hoërskool Oos-Moot in Pretoria.The teenager has allegedly been subjected to bullying and belittling by fellow pupils since last year. “If she gets hurt at school, they must know all hell will break loose. I feel so terribly small, because I don’t know what more to do to protect her,” he said.Van der Merwe, who gave his permission for him to be named despite the victim being a minor, said he loved the teenager dearly and regarded her as his own child. He desperately wanted to help her.He had spoken to the principal and vice-principal, as well as the school governing body, on several occasions to try to establish what was going on.“My pleas fell on deaf ears,” Van der Merwe said in papers before the Pretoria High Court.

Source: School blocks dad’s anti-bullying mission – Crime & Courts | IOL News