More than 75,000 people have pledged their names to a 13-year-old Australian schoolgirl’s petition asking for her school to intervene with the bullying she faces on a daily basis. Tayla Sekhmet, who attends Dysart State High School in central Queensland, has received an outpouring of public support in her attempts to raise awareness about the relentless physical and verbal attacks she endures while at school and beyond.
In her Change.org petition, Tayla and her mother Kali allege that the school has not fulfilled its duty in protecting the 13-year-old girl from a culture of bullying.
“I’m the most unpopular kid at school and people make my life a living hell,” Tayla says. “Every day people call me fatso, weirdo, ugly, freak, and tell me I should kill myself.
“I’ve been pushed to the ground, had people go through my bag, or break my scooter when I rode it to school. Even people in other grades who I don’t know do these things to me too.”
With her mother, Tayla hopes that the signatures collected will help her to confront the Queensland education minister Kate Jones and her school’s staff, whom she will hopefully compel to take a firmer stance on acts of aggression committed by students against other students in their charge.
“My life is hell. I only beg for you to please sign my petition to ask Dysart State High School to take a stronger stance against bullying and for the Government to stop the school getting away with this.
“I have told my teachers many times, my mum has called the school, and I have had school meetings. None of this is helping, I’ve been told to just ignore these people, but I can’t take it anymore.”
Tayla’s petition took on a new dimension when Change.org’s communications director Gary Nunn shared it on his Twitter account, calling it one of the “most powerful” the website had ever seen.
One of most powerful petitions we've seen on https://t.co/A8aeRlzSKq-front page @couriermail https://t.co/y7VY75vq2z https://t.co/0HRmv3Xs2M
— Gary Nunn (@GaryNunn1) June 16, 2016
The petition was also shared by a number of journalists, as well as Star Trek actor William Shatner who redirected his message to Malcolm Turnbull, the Australian Prime Minister.
@TurnbullMalcolm Prime Minister with bullying being a major issue for the young I want to bring this to yr attention https://t.co/EtbklOSxGN
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) June 17, 2016
A spokesman representing Queensland’s state education department told Courier Mail is “not tolerated” at any of its schools and revealed that the department had been in contact with Tayla and her mother “for some time to resolve her concerns.”
Responding to the hundreds of comments of support Tayla has received from supporters, Kali Sekhmet said that her daughter was in tears when reading through them.
“She couldn’t believe that so many people could care about – in her words – ‘a insignificant freak like me,’” Kali wrote.
“I know that you are all random strangers on the Internet and we will never meet, but thank you from the bottom of my heart for signing this petition, because you have changed my daughter’s life forever.”
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