A 13-YEAR-OLD boy is being kept off school because his mother can't afford his £1.20 a day bus fare. The boy has been forced to attend Carnforth School because he was bullied so severely at his local Skerton High School. But the city council won't pay for a bus pass to Carnforth because they claim the teenager is able to attend the local school.

The teenager (whose mother maintains she tried the other schools in Lancaster) says he didn't want to leave Skerton but his life had become unbearable due to one particular bully who it's claimed:

stole his shoes and threw them away, leaving him to walk barefoot

split his head open with a coin

'shadowed' him constantly, destroyed his clothes and other property and hit and beat him regularly

Now the family are in trouble with the authorities because the boy's mum (who is a single parent on benefits) can't always find the fare to send her son to school.

"I can't send him because I haven't got the money," she explained. "I just couldn't keep on sending him there, he was a different lad, moody and unhappy, but the one who was bullying him received loads of attention from the teachers and my lad was just ignored.

"He's doing well at his new school, that's what makes it so frustrating. Skerton said he had the reading age of a nine-year-old but at this school they say his reading is fine, completely up to standard."

But a spokesman for Lancashire County Council dismissed claims that the teenager should be allowed a bus pass.

He said: "Pupils are only entitled to assistance with transport when the nearest suitable available secondary school is over three miles away. In this instance there are suitable places at schools nearer than Carnforth High School, assistance is therefore not available.

"The parent has already exercised her right to an appeal but that was lost."

Headmaster of Skerton High Peter Doyle said the boy had been unhappy in his first year but the bully had been dealt with. He said the authorities had contacted the school about the bus pass but they had to tell them that the situation with the bully had been sorted out.

He continued: "We were sorry to lose that boy, everyone liked him and he had a set of friends.

"We have had cases of pupils who were bullied at other schools who've come here and found staff and pupils supportive. All pupils who are caught bullying receive counselling. If it continues they are excluded from school as I did to one pupil recently."

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