The mother of a Yetholm teenager says she has removed her daughter from Kelso High School because of inaction over her complaint of bullying.
Sarah Mcfarling claims daughter Nicole, who is aged 15 and in fourth year at the school, has been repeatedly verbally abused by a younger girl at the school over the past six months.
Nicole is now off school for the second time due to the alleged bullying problem, something the youngster also experienced at her previous school, Earlston High.
“Nicole wants to work with horses and the next four months are the most important of her school career as she is trying to study for exams,” explained her mother.
She went on: “This girl has been making my daughter’s life miserable at school, yet despite speaking several times with the school and with Scottish Borders Council, nothing has happened.
“It has got to the stage where I have had to report it to the police and I am also having a meeting with my MSP about it this week.
“It is a disgrace that this is still going on. And I have spoken to other parents whose children have also been bullied at the school, including one family who felt they had to move away from the area as a result.”
Contacted by The Southern, Scottish Borders Council said it was unable to comment on individual cases.
“However, we take allegations of bullying seriously and thoroughly investigate all incidents reported to us,” said a spokesperson this week.
Ms Mcfarling says her daughter had been a “straight A” student up until the victimisation problems began.
But, she added: “Not now, and the effect is that her results at school are suffering. Nicole is due to sit her prelims in February and needs to be spending this time studying, not having her life affected like this.
“To be honest I don’t know what is going to happen if there isn’t any action taken. At the moment I am not sending Nicole back to the school.
“When we lived at Newtown St Boswells she attended Earlston High School, but after bullying problems started there, we moved to Town Yetholm so Nicole could attend Kelso High, but the same problems have started all over again.”
Last year, SBC became the first local authority in Scotland to adopt a model of youth-led policy making over bullying.
The local authority accepted 33 recommendations on tackling the issue contained in a report compiled by the Scottish Borders Youth Commission on Bullying.