00:00I've asked for people to come forward whose children are school avoiders like Harvey was
00:04because we went 18 months with Harvey not wanting to go to school, we didn't understand why
00:11and we had people coming into the house, into his bedroom, teachers telling him he'd go to school
00:19and he used to say, you don't understand, I can't go to school and we didn't understand
00:26we thought we were on his own, we got all these people coming in trying to help us
00:33and I'd say to him, is this normal, him not wanting to go to school and they'd say it's very extreme
00:40and he'd stand in his bedroom and he'd still be asleep kind of thing
00:46and I know now he were blocking it out, he couldn't stand this thing
00:51because I used to say, Harvey, is it worth all this?
00:54Is it worth your teachers coming, just go to school?
00:57And he'd say, you don't understand
00:59Children have, we don't understand that children have gone, are having anxiety
01:06which Harvey had a lot of anxiety
01:07I think a lot of it is around Harvey's age because Harvey went from a tiny school
01:13then there was Covid, he walked up for two years and then plunked into a big school
01:18and I think this started his anxiety because we never, we just were business as usual for kids
01:26and didn't understand, but I understand now
01:28Him saying he weren't very well and he weren't, so he weren't, we kept him off school odd day
01:34and then it got more and more and then he just point blank refused to go to school
01:39and we had, I mean, there's holes in his bedroom walls where he was so frustrated
01:46because we weren't listening to him
01:48because we were just told we were on his own
01:51we were the only people, he's been naughty because he's not going to school
01:54punish him, take his phone off him
01:57we didn't celebrate his birthday, which absolutely kills me
02:01because he was being naughty because he weren't going to school
02:04and the week before Harvey passed, my mum found him crying in his bedroom
02:08and he said, nah nah, I am trying my best and nobody understands me
02:14I had a meeting today because I put it out there
02:18because I thought we were on his own with the school avoidance
02:21and I've had so many messages from parents that they're going through the same thing
02:28and all it is, is you're going to get fined, you're going to get a criminal record
02:32last year we got told in September
02:35it's going, you're going to get processed now
02:38and you are going to get fined and you're going to get a criminal record
02:40it's gone up, the fine
02:42and when I met up with Yvette Cooper, I brought this up
02:46and she said it's a massive problem
02:47so I thought, oh, they're going to start looking into it
02:50and then last month they said, oh, it's not working, this
02:53we're going to put the fines up and have more consequences
02:56punishing them
02:57they need to get down to the bottom of why
03:01children are feeling like this
03:03I want to listen to some children as well
03:06we've got some children coming that want to
03:09because it's alright listening to me
03:11it's them that are having these feelings
03:13and we need to try and understand them
03:16and I just want the government to take a bit of control of these academies
03:21that's what I want
03:24I want to keep going up with them
03:36and I want to keep going up with them
03:39and I want to keep going up with them
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