Blogger Constance Hall has urged her 1.3 million social media followers to fight “one of the hardest problems on earth” in a heartfelt post about bullying.
In an emotional post shared on Facebook on Sunday, the Perth-based blogger opened up about her daughter’s recent struggle with schoolyard bullies, revealing she had taken her daughter out of school.
The social media star, who is famous for her candid posts about life as a mother of seven children, accompanied the post with a photo of a message exchange between her and her daughter’s bully
“My daughter has recently been hurt, hurt so badly,” Hall wrote.
“Her tough little face as she shrugged it off saying, ‘It’s not their fault if they don’t like me, Mum’, sent me into a world of anger.
Hall, who is no stranger to unrelenting abuse online, said the pain of being “one of the most online bullied women in the country”, was a “drop in the ocean” compared to the “fury” she felt for her girl.
“That’s a drop in the ocean compared to how it feels to know that not only has your child been told to go away because nobody likes her, has been called ugly, has eaten her lunch in the toilets because her friends’ pack mentality has created a game out of her pain,” she wrote.
“I won’t name names, I won’t listen to my heart and destroy lives or burn down the school, I’m converting that anger toward a solution to this epic problem.”
Hall said she was considering moving her daughter to a new school or homeschooling her.
“I have taken my daughter out of school, taken her to the doctors for a medical certificate until it’s resolved, even if that means home schooling, or a commute, or we move. I don’t care,” she wrote.
Hall said the issue was a “life or death situation” and feared for children who had resorted to suicide.
“I have received thousands of messages and travelled the country speaking to parents of children who were bullied to death and children who had considered joining them,” she said.
Despite her despair, the 37-year-old hopes to spur on a movement in which older kids buddy up to protect younger victims of bullying.
“I want to create a movement where victimised children can reach out to older kids for protection and the older kids offer that security without violence or abuse,” she wrote.
“Not through a school, through a program that in my dreams becomes a culture.
“A movement where a kid who feels like a loser is shown by another kid who’s been around a bit longer that they are the opposite of a loser.”
In an anti-bullying ‘recruitment drive’, Hall set out some practical tools to tackle the scourge of bullying, encouraging parents to delete their child’s Snapchat, to do regular checks of their child’s phone, expose bullies to their parents and to accept their own child could be a bully.
“Bullying needs a new name. Its association with normalised childhood behaviour is outdated. Know better now,” the post read.
“Please support this and stand with me – if your child is on the side of a victim or the side (of a) perpetrator, please remember that doesn’t mean we are on a different side.
“We stand strong together, united by our identical desire for happy kids.”
Has your child been impacted by bullying or know somebody who has, please reach out – kate.lockley@news.com.au