Mother's Son Bullied for Six Months After Defending Classmate; School Failed to Act Until Government Review

For six months, Adriana Lim Escano's teenage son went to school and said nothing. He had tried to do the right thing – stepping in when a group of boys bullied a classmate – and paid for it with half a year of misery, name-calling and social isolation. His mother only found out when another parent called to say her son had voiced suicidal thoughts to a friend. The school's response, when it finally came, was a talking-to from the discipline committee. No suspensions. No meaningful consequences. "He questioned whether there was justice in this world and whether there were safe adults in school who cared," said Escano, 47, the founder of a distribution and retail concepts company. The measures, announced after a government review following two high-profile school bullying incidents, aim to introduce a clearer punishment framework – rather than a case-by-case approach – under which repeat offenders of serious offences can be suspended for five to 14 days.