Parents who spoke out to support The Sun’s Block The Bullying campaign flooded with support
Simon McManus and Claire Johnston, who shared their children's bullying stories this week, said they have been overwhelmed by kind messages
PARENTS who shared stories for The Sun and NSPCC's Block The Bullying campaign have been "overwhelmed" with support throughout the week.
Simon McManus and Claire Johnston revealed they have been flooded with kind messages.
Yeovil dad Simon, whose son Toby was battered for sitting on another kid's bike, said: "I've got so many kind messages, it's awesome.
"It's been shared several times from my Facebook and I've had so many nice messages - they've all been really, really positive."
Simon said other parents have got in contact since seeing Toby's story to share their own experiences with bullying.
He said it made him realise he was "lucky" Toby's school were so helpful as "other teachers say 'don't be so silly' and 'harden up'."
The single dad added: "You've got to educate these people, it's all about education.
"Everyone needs educating - the teachers, parents need to learn to recognise it, kids need to be educated on how to deal with it if it happens to them and bullies need educating on what they're doing.
"It's all about education really."
Claire, who appeared on Sky News earlier this week with her daughter Amelie to discuss the 13-year-old's bully experience and our campaign, also described the response as "fantastic".
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She said: "It's been a good experience for Amelie, really it's fantastic.
"She now wants to do more work with the NSPCC as a result."
Claire said she's particularly glad social media companies have "jumped on board" with the campaign.
She said: "Lots of people have said nice things to us.
"They've said it's great the NSPCC are involved and that The Sun are doing this.
"People told us we're very brave for speaking out and how great it is to face the bullies.
"Overall it's just been a really positive response."
Claire and Simon were two of five parents to speak out about their teen's experiences after bully videos went viral.
Block The Bullying aims to educate young people about why filming and sharing attacks on social media can be just as damaging to a child as the actual physical assault.
We are also telling teens what to do if they see a bullying video on social media, how parents should react if their child is a victim and we are asking readers to .
Finally we are calling on social media channels to take down any videos showing the bullying of children as soon as they become aware
The Sun Online has pledged not to publish any more videos of children being bullied, unless we have express permission from the family or police.
If you or anyone you know have experienced this kind of bullying email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368