Kids attacking my son

gabsdot40

My son is 12 and in first year. He cycles home from school and part of his route is along the Blakestown road.
3 times in the last 2 weeks he has been accosted by 2 younger kids, who have pulled at his school bag and tried to knock him off his bike and threatened to steel the bike.
Today one of them hit him in the back of the head while trying to pull him off his bike, a man intervened and he was able to cycle off thankfully
This all happened on Blakestown road close to the shop.
He thinks they go to the primary school in Blakestown because they had uniforms on one of the times.
He's upset and embarrassed because they are younger than him and he feels that he should be able to defend himself.
Anyway. I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do. Should I contact the school? the guards? Hang around the area myself and try to spot who the little feckers are.

Any advice.
Thanks

BrokenArrows

gabsdot40 wrote: »

My son is 12 and in first year. He cycles home from school and part of his route is along the Blakestown road.
3 times in the last 2 weeks he has been accosted by 2 younger kids, who have pulled at his school bag and tried to knock him off his bike and threatened to steel the bike.
Today one of them hit him in the back of the head while trying to pull him off his bike, a man intervened and he was able to cycle off thankfully
This all happened on Blakestown road close to the shop.
He thinks they go to the primary school in Blakestown because they had uniforms on one of the times.
He's upset and embarrassed because they are younger than him and he feels that he should be able to defend himself.
Anyway. I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do. Should I contact the school? the guards? Hang around the area myself and try to spot who the little feckers are.

Any advice.
Thanks

Its an unfortunate problem with little ****ers, they only act in groups.
Nothing for him to be embarrassed about. If he stops to fight one of them will simply steal the bike while the other engages him and then runs away.

Get him to take a different route for starters which skips this area.

Is the bike replaceable? If you can stand the loss of the bike for the sake of pride and your son thinks he can take them if he didn't have to worry about the bike then maybe give him permission to go for them accepting that the bike may be lost. Not the best advice in the world but if your kid runs from this now he will be running for his entire secondary school life.

Unfortunately its a simple scenario. Continue to run or stop and fight.
Parental involvement is just a temporary measure.

Bit of boxing classes would be good too to build some confidence.

January

Tell him to take an alternative route.

Seanie_H

Tell the school. If they're at this in their uniform and going to and from school they should take action. That's the simplest form of bullying. I'm sure it would be helpful to give them that class you think they might be in.

Poor young fella shouldn't have to put up with that crap going to school.

Zaph

OP, as this isn't specifically a D15 issue I'm going to move this to the Parenting forum where you might get a lot more advice from other parents who may have encountered a similar issue.

Mongfinder General

Your child needs to be able to defend himself. If he takes a bite out of one of those kids they'll think twice the next time they attack.

vicwatson

If he's being assaulted then it's time to involve An Garda Siochana

andekwarhola

vicwatson wrote: »

If he's being assaulted then it's time to involve An Garda Siochana

The Gardai won't do anything unless they happen to see it occurring. It happens every day all over the city.

Seeing as it's not allowed here to advise what we used to do: get an adult to have a word or travel with enough friends to fight the scrotes back with even numbers, the only solution is just to take a different route unfortunately.

January

Seriously guys, telling the OP that the kid should retaliate, it might end up doing more harm to the kid than good, especially if he is alone and the attackers are in a group. It's just plain bad advice. Alternative route and report to school that uniform belongs to.

vicwatson

andekwarhola wrote: »

The Gardai won't do anything unless they happen to see it occurring. It happens every day all over the city.

Seeing as it's not allowed here to advise what we used to do: get an adult to have a word or travel with enough friends to fight the scrotes back with even numbers, the only solution is just to take a different route unfortunately.

You go in and make a complaint, Im quite sure the Gardai will take the complaint seriously

Edups2.0

vicwatson wrote: »

You go in and make a complaint, Im quite sure the Gardai will take the complaint seriously

Not likely. It's he said she said kind of thing. You say the kids are doing it they say no we aren't.

am i bovvered

My experience are the gaurds are a total waste of time with this type of issue, you may get lucky though.
Best route is to contact the national school.
Fair play to your lad for telling you.

Glico Man

This used to happen to me when I was younger. I lived just outside a small village and had moved from the local school to another in a larger town. Doing this apparently caused me some trouble with the local kids.

I used to cycle to the shop for my parents for little bits and pieces. The kids used to be a bit worse however, throwing stuff like timber and rocks on occasion as well as shouting abuse (my parents are English so you can imagine).

I didn't tell my parents cos they would go ballistic and I didn't want to upset them. I just took a different route to the village. It took me about 10 minutes longer, but it was worth avoiding the hassle.

Avoiding is the better option where possible.

Edgarfrndly

Send him into an MMA gym so he can learn how to defend himself, and acquire confidence. Bullies pick on people who are passive and who they perceive as weak. If he shows strength, they'll leave him alone.

vicwatson

Edups2.0 wrote: »

Not likely. It's he said she said kind of thing. You say the kids are doing it they say no we aren't.

No it is not. You make a complaint that your son is being assaulted, the Gardai are duty bound to investigate it. Simples.

shesty

I would also tell the primary school. If they're in uniform doing it, then you are 100% entitled to do that, along with the Gardai. No harm in making people aware.

Edups2.0

vicwatson wrote: »

No it is not. You make a complaint that your son is being assaulted, the Gardai are duty bound to investigate it. Simples.

Yeah... do you deal with Gardai often?

Suckit

@OP, are the kids scumbags, are the parents?
Could you go to their parents and mention it to them? That should stop it fairly quickly. With so many devices available now he could even wear a camera to record them and show the parents.

FAILSAFE 00

Help him plan out an alternate route or delay his departure by X number of minutes from school.

A few minutes could make all the difference. I think its good for a child to learn to work their way around problems like these.

I don't agree with the street fighting advice. Yes, its great to know but its always best to use your head to workaround these types of situations.

bp

I would report it to the schools, have him change route, make sure to reassure that it's not his fault and maybe put him in martial arts for his confidence NOT to beat them up

andekwarhola

vicwatson wrote: »

You go in and make a complaint, Im quite sure the Gardai will take the complaint seriously

You're saying the Gardai will track down the culprits based on a kid saying those other kids tried to push me off my bike?

Not having a go at you but it's not going to happen.

Kev.

Sorry to hear about this OP

Please have a look at this thread

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=101016037