Olympic diver Tom Daley bullied at school

SURELY being an Olympic star as a schoolboy should ensure that your classmates think you’re the coolest pupil in the world? Not in England though, where we can’t abide success: Tom Daley, the teenage diver who captured the public’s imagination at the Beijing Olympics last year, has temporarily been removed from his school in Plymouth, because of nasty bullies.

Tom’s dad, Rob, said he is considering moving his son from Eggbuckland Community College because of the insulting behaviour of some students. Indeed, he has kept Tom at home this week in case the bullying affected a diving competition in Florida next month.

“The bullying is severe,” Rob said. “He has been tackled to the floor walking through the school field and in class they throw pens and pencils at him. Some of them have even threatened to break his legs. That was the last straw. It has got to the point where enough is enough.”

“It’s gone on a long time,” Tom told The Guardian. “But it reached a peak after the Olympics and has just stayed there. They’ve been taking the mick for ages, calling me ‘Diver Boy’, but they now spend most of their time throwing stuff at me. I thought it would calm down but it hasn’t.”

Pipe down Diver Boy, and give Anorak your pockey money. (Only joking.)

Anorak

Posted: 24th, April 2009 | In: Sports Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink