A SECOND family today revealed they removed their daughter from a school at the centre of bullying allegations and claimed she was tormented daily for almost three years.

Angry mother Patricia Holmes said she refused to send her eldest daughter Lily, 14, back to Darwen Vale High School and claimed she was taken to hospital because bullies had ripped the hair from her head.

Another pupil, 13-year-old Susanne Hamer, has spent months away from the school this year because of trouble with bullies who put her in hospital after one vicious attack.

Her mother Elaine, who is refusing to send her back, is now planning to sue the Local Education Authority for failing to provide a safe environment for her child.

Mrs Holmes, of Birch Hall Avenue, Darwen, said: "Lily was regularly upset by bullies at the school and spent weeks at a time away from Darwen Vale but I always sent her back because I believe you have to deal with people like this.

"But the last straw came when I went to pick her up from school one night and had to take her to hospital because whole chunks of her hair had been ripped from her head and her scalp was bleeding. Parts of her skin were on her coat.

"She was crying hysterically and I just looked at her and what had happened and thought 'Oh my God, I've been sending her here to be bullied like this'. I decided then she wasn't going back."

Lily did go back for one day to sit a French exam but was attacked by another pupil who snapped her ruler in half and slashed the back of her hand with the jagged edge. Mrs Holmes, 51, went on: "In the three years she was at Darwen Vale she was spat on, kicked, punched, beaten up and called names on a regular basis. I don't think there was a day went by when she wasn't mentally or physically abused.

"In one of the more serious incidents her hands were pushed back and her fingers swelled up so much she could use them for a week.

"Lily is epileptic and should not have any stress. Her fits were becoming more regular but we didn't realise why."

Mrs Holmes, who has another daughter Janet, 13, has now pledged to support Mrs Hamer's campaign to sue the local education authority.

She said: "I have sat in my car outside that school. I've seen chairs being thrown around classrooms and pupils jumping off tables and out of windows."

"When Lily was there I felt like a permanent fixture on the end of the telephone line telling them what was happening and went to lots of meetings but nothing was ever done about it. I asked and asked for work to be sent home for her but nothing ever came."

Senior teacher Richard Howarth said he was unable to comment on the specifics of Lily's case but confirmed she had left because of problems that included bullying.

He went on: "No school can say they don't have a problem with bullying but as schools go I wouldn't say it was a particular problem at Darwen Vale.

"Last year we took part in a county wide initiative looking at pupils' attitudes generally and it was found bullying was not a significant concern to the great majority of them."

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