Inside Australia's School Bullying Crisis: A special 7NEWS investigation
WATCH TONIGHT: To see Chris Reason's special investigation on Australia's bullying crisis, watch 7NEWS tonight live at 6pm.
Clare McCann was a single mum with a single child — who has now been taken from her.
After what she describes as a sustained and often violent campaign of horrific school bullying, her son died by suicide.
His name was Atreyu McMann. He was just 13 years old and in his first year of high school.
Atreyu was named after the hero character in the 1984 classic The NeverEnding Story.
Tragically, Atreyu's story ended long before it should have.
When I first met McCann, it was just days after Atreyu had died. She was a broken woman. Her eyes were red, her face pale, as she climbed out of her friend's car at the place she wanted to talk — Atreyu's favourite surf spot.
Maroubra Beach.
As we walked around the headland to the spot where mother and son used to sit and watch the waves, she let the memories of Atreyu wash over her.
'He was so beautiful,' she said.
'He was excited to be 13 and to meet friends. He was so excited for school, so excited for his future.'
But McCann told how she watched her son gradually drown in the brutality of teenage life.
It was an awful, heartbreaking story — told through unending tears.
Atreyu had been mostly homeschooled through his primary school years, and McCann admits that by the time he hit high school, he was probably under-prepared.
South Sydney High School was a shock to his young system.
It wasn't long before he was identified and targeted by bullies, McCann said.
It became increasingly hard to get him to go to school. McCann reached out to school authorities repeatedly for help.
There were text messages, emails, phone calls, and visits. Did they do anything?
'Nothing, nothing, nothing,' McCann said.
It was an agonising, ongoing cry for help — delivered over weeks — but it got her nowhere.
'I just didn't get a response,' she said. 'For weeks, I kept reaching out, kept calling, kept emailing.'
She recalls one day she went to the school to complain — but staff couldn't see her because the Education Minister was touring the facility, being held up as a shining example of the NSW education system.
'We got to the point where my son told me, 'If you make me go to school, I'll kill myself'. So, I took him out.'
Atreyu had only started at the school in February. McCann removed him from the school in April.
She sought help, taking him to mental health professionals.
'I thought he was getting better, but he developed PTSD,' McMann said.
And six weeks later, Atreyu was found dead in his bedroom.
'He'll never get married … never have children,' she sobs. 'I'll never have grandchildren.'
'I can't believe it was my son … never thought it would be my son.'
I asked McMann if she felt let down by the system.
'I feel completely let down,' she said. 'It needs to change.'
McMann is an actor by profession, but this could be the most important role of her life — campaigning for the safety of children.
Other parents' children. Because hers is now gone.
If you need help in a crisis, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
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