Reaction is overwhelming after Petrus du Plessis tweets about his son's school bullying ordeal

Internationals

8:12am, 01 October 2020

Newly appointed Australia scrum coach Petrus du Plessis, the former Glasgow prop and coach, has generated an overwhelming reaction on social media after sharing his son’s experience of bullying at school in Scotland.

The recent Dave Rennie staff recruit shared on Twitter on Wednesday evening an audio recording of some of the threats and abuse sent to his son at school.

Although he has since deleted this particular tweet, he has shared a message thanking those for the support he has received online since, whilst also mentioning the lack of support he has received from the school.

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Ex-Glasgow forward du Plessis said: “Thank you for the response regarding my son’s bullying. I don’t want parents and children to go through the same ordeal. Educate your children. Speak up and stand up to bullying.”

He also provided a further summary of the events, saying his aim was to “make parents aware of bullying where it can cause a child to have lasting mental health problems”.

Thank you for the response regarding my son’s bullying. I dont want parents and children to go through the same ordeal. Educate your children. Speak up and stand up to bullying. #BullyingDestroysLives #Speakout ? @_respectme_ pic.twitter.com/nxHayo2wch
— Petrus du Plessis (@PetrusduPlessis) October 1, 2020

He wrote: “We did take our son out the school, another child was also removed with the same problem. We have emailed the school over 40 times, made a huge complaint and informed MPs, governors, councillors and the council. The response we got was only stating that the school did everything they could. However, the bullying never stopped.”

Du Plessis tagged the Respect Me organisation in the tweet, the group that describes itself as Scotland’s anti-bullying service, providing “free anti-bullying training, policy support, resources, and national campaigns”.

In his extensive message, du Plessis closed by saying that it had been “poor communication throughout”, but since he made this ordeal public twelve children from the school had come out to share a similar experience.

The South African has been widely commended online for sharing this, not only to help expose and prevent this from happening but in order to hold the school to account.

When I got this email from a student at @BearsdenAcademy today, it really brought a lump to my throat. Consent was given to post this anonymously. Thank you for reaching out. pic.twitter.com/h7Leh5hrHm
— Petrus du Plessis (@PetrusduPlessis) October 1, 2020