Littlehampton: Mother discovers daughter on Instagram fight page

The Instagram "fighting" page, called LA.Baites, encouraged people to submit “Littlehampton fights and pics”.

Megan Jones, 31, was shocked to find a video of her 12-year-old daughter Lily being attacked on the Instagram page, which she reported.

The page contained five videos, four of which were said to be from the same school her daughter attends, The Littlehampton Academy (TLA).

The page which showed Littlehampton fights has since been banned by Instagram (Image: Instagram)

The page, which has now been taken down by Instagram, showed fights inside school corridors and on school grounds as well as outside school.

Captions on the videos describe students getting "boxed" and "banged".

The school said it was aware of the Instagram page but could not locate the account after searching.

Ms Jones said: “I was shocked to be honest. I can’t believe kids do that sort of thing. They’re in TLA school uniform in some of them."

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Her husband John Jones, Lily’s stepfather, said: “It’s not just Lily’s situation, there are other kids being hurt.

“These kids are not like us when we were young, we had more respect for adults and teachers.

“It seems to be an ongoing issue. When you watch Waterloo Road [a programme about a school with behavioural problems] on TV, they sort things out with the school in that.

Lily with her younger sibling Paris (Image: Megan Jones)

“The school and Old Bill were aware of the children involved. They should nip it in the bud.

“Kids should get their phones taken off them. Why should they have phones out in school? The school is more worried about if their skirts are below the knee. School should be a safe place for our children.

“Lily’s too scared to go out at the moment, she won’t be able to cope with being in school at the moment. If nothing’s done we will have to look to move her.”

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TLA said it could not comment on police investigations or on individuals.

Sarah Pringle, headteacher at TLA, said: “The school has very strong pastoral systems and a team of dedicated staff including safeguarding leads who provide regular contact with families and additional support for students when needed including counselling, mental health support, single point of access referrals, safety plans and 1:1 sessions. 

“The academy also works very closely with our neighbourhood youth officer, police and Arun Council staff who liaise with families and schools regarding incidents which happen outside school.

Megan Jones with her daughter Lily (Image: Megan Jones)

"The police also support the academy through providing sessions for students as part of the comprehensive school’s personal development programme.”

A spokeswoman for Sussex Police said: “We are aware of this incident, which reportedly occurred in Mewsbrook Park, Littlehampton, around 4.30pm on March 13.

“Officers have engaged with the victim and her family and provided safeguarding advice, and enquiries are ongoing.”

Meta, which runs Instagram, confirmed the account had been suspended.