Ben's Story
As told by www.dailymail.co.uk
- Olinka Koster
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Ben Vodden - 11 years old
Bullycide in the United Kingdom
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Found hanged:
The bullied 11-year-old
boy who even the bus driver called names
By OLINKA KOSTER
When Ben Vodden told his mother he
was being bullied on the school bus, she advised him to sit next to the
driver.
Yet rather than look after him, the
driver joined in the taunts and called the 11-year-old names, it has been
claimed.
Ben finally was found hanged after
enduring months of bullying by pupils on the bus, an inquest heard.
The boy – nicknamed Giggles by his
family because of his "fun-loving and enthusiastic" nature – was found
with shoelaces around his neck and tied to his bunk bed.
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Since starting secondary school last
September, Ben had encountered name-calling, gesturing and swearing on
the bus.
The inquest was told that driver
Brian McCullough was partly responsible, allegedly calling the youngster
"Master Bate", "D***head" and "Billy No Mates".
Ben’s mother Caroline, 47, said his
last words to her were: "I’m sorry, Mummy."
His father Paul, a 57-year-old forestry
worker, found him unconscious after returning from work to the family home
in Southwater, West Sussex, on December 12.
A pathologist confirmed that Ben
died by hanging.
Mrs Vodden, a trainee church minister,
told the inquest: "He would say, 'Everybody is being horrid to me, Mummy'.
Then he would say, 'I have got no friends'.
"On December 4 he came home from
school and he was the most upset I have ever seen him.
"He tried to tear up his bus pass
and said, 'I’m never going on that bus again Mummy, I hate that bus, I
hate my school'.
"Ben said the bus driver had been
calling him Master Bate because he was ‘a little w*****’ and everyone else
on the bus had started calling him that too."
On December 12, Ben’s parents received
a phone call from the school saying he had been taken off the bus on the
way home because he had been hitting the air vent and making a gesture
at the driver.
But he refused to explain his behaviour
to his mother. "He immediately got very angry and defensive and asked what
the school had said," she said.
"He said, 'I won’t tell you and I
can’t tell you'. I followed him and stopped him from leaving the room and
said, 'Sweetheart, you have got to tell me because we can’t help you unless
you tell me what has happened'."
Ben went into his room but emerged
to give his mother a hug and say sorry, before returning to his room and
sobbing loudly before he was found dead.
Giving evidence at the inquest in
Horsham, West Sussex, bus driver Mr McCullough denied calling Ben Master
Bate.
"I feel like I have been put on trial
this morning," he said.
"I really did like him and had a
lot of time for him. We used to call each other D***heads – it was the
banter.
"I did say Billy No Mates, but again
that was in banter because he was having a go at me at the time. I just
said, 'Sit down, Billy No Mates'.
"When I heard about his death I was
devastated because to me he was Jack the Lad and the aggressor on the coach."
The inquest heard Ben had been the
victim of bullies on the bus who stole his tie the second day after he
started at Tanbridge House, a 1,420- pupil state school in Horsham.
On the morning of his death he sent
his father a text saying: "Please can you bring my hair gel. PS They are
doing it again."
West Sussex Coroner Dr David Shipp
recorded an open verdict, saying he was not satisfied Ben had intended
to take his own life.
He added: "I believe this story highlights
the vulnerability of some young people to outside influence and our responsibility
as adults to treat these youngsters with consideration and respect, however
hard that can be at the time."
In a statement Mr and Mrs Vodden
said: "It has been an extremely traumatic day but we are grateful that
all concerned answered the coroner’s questions. Ben was being bullied and
some of those incidents occurred at school and on the school bus.
"When Ben told us people were being
horrible to him on the bus, we even suggested to him he sit near the driver
where he would be safe.
"The simple fact is that Ben would
not be dead if he hadn’t been bullied. We strongly believe that."
Why does this sort of thing continue,
in the 21st century? The apathy of schools is to blame, mainly, apart from
the cruelty of some children to others.
Bullying 
depression
