14-year-old autistic girl brutally assaulted in classroom as students yelled 'punch her'
A shocking video has surfaced showing a high school classroom attack where students can be seen throwing punches at an autistic 14-year-old girl on Monday.
The footage, which was shared on Instagram and Snapchat, shows Amy McAloon, 14, being held down by one of her classmates at Alsop High School in Walton, Liverpool while another girl throws punches at her. In the clip, another student can be heard shouting "punch her" as her other classmates stand by watching or filming the incident.
The incident unfolded on Monday and the clips were later shared on social media platforms. Amy can be seen struggling to fend off a flurry of kicks and punches in the clips being circulated online.
The 14-year-old's mother, Helen McAloon from Walton, shared the clip on Twitter in hope of highlighting the abuse faced by her daughter in the school.
McAloon on Tuesday tweeted: "Video of my daughter being beaten up in class, Alsop High School, Liverpool, shes 14 and autistic, her classmates thought it was fun to share the video online — so I'm sharing to shame them!"
McAloon, while talking to the Daily Mail, said: "My daughter is 14 and she goes to Alsop. Amy is autistic and she keeps getting picked on in school. She got beaten up a few times in the playground and this has been going on for three years. Yesterday, I got a phone call saying she had been in a fight in school and they were investigating — and then when she got home last night, she burst into tears and said, 'Mum, there's a video of me getting beaten up on Snapchat.' It was on Instagram as well."
The 52-year-old mother said that her daughter's autism makes her "vulnerable" and she fears that other students have bullied her because of this. The mother said Amy "attracts attention" and that "it's noticeable to other kids that she's not streetwise," which makes her a focus of attacks from other students.
McAloon said that she had sent three of her older children to the same school as Amy and that her siblings had done well in the institution.
"She has been in mainstream school all her life. She's really good at music and art but not so much academically. It's about the eighth time I've had to deal with the school over this and I can't understand what homes these kids come from," the mother told the outlet.
"My husband and I work really hard to make sure our kids aren't a nuisance because we're a big family and there's a stereotype where people expect six kids to be wild or brought up on chicken nuggets," she added.
McAloon broke down saying that she was "mortified" when she saw the video online: "The kids in school can pick her autism out a mile off. They are feral. There's one girl holding her down and a boy shouting 'punch her, punch her'. I can't imagine how hard it is for her to go into school every day."
A spokesperson of the school released a statement saying: "Alsop High School takes any allegations of bullying extremely seriously and the wellbeing of our pupils is of the highest priority. This very regrettable incident was dealt with immediately by staff as part of the school's internal disciplinary process."