Copyright dailyrecord
A furious mum has hit out at her son’s former school after he managed to leave the building unsupervised before being found trying to buy a train ticket. Ana Martinez, 48, also claims little Markel's head was "slammed against a wall" by another pupil inside a classroom at Gylemuir Primary School in Edinburgh . The eight-year-old required three stitches following the incident in May 2025 which saw the worried parent arrive at school to find him looking pale and lying on a couch. Ana has raised her concerns with how the school handled multiple alleged 'failures'. The mum, who lives in Leith, says her child had managed to escape the school grounds on several occasions prior to his eventual exclusion from the capital primary . Ana told Edinburgh Live : “My son was very badly bullied after moving to Gylemuir as other children did not understand him. His head was smashed against a wall by another child and he needed three stitches. “The school never called an ambulance despite his head being open and him turning very pale. They never explained anything to me after I arrived, and we had to get a taxi up to the hospital, we were given no means of getting back. “It was a horrible experience for him. He has been traumatised by this. When children approach him now, he covers his head in fear and runs to me. He has been emotionally damaged.” The mum went on to explain how her child managed to escape the school grounds six times. This was confirmed in documentation seen by Edinburgh Live from Edinburgh Council’s Education Complaints Service. During one incident, he was able to leave the school and make his way to a nearby train station where he tried to buy a ticket to Inverness. Luckily a couple approached the boy and discovered he had left the nearby school where they returned him. On another occasion, on May 1 2025, he was helped by motorists on Glasgow Road after he had climbed the school fence before making his way to the busy main road where he began screaming at cars. Following this incident , the child was excluded from the school, with Gylemuir citing the pupil was in danger of causing harm to himself and adding adjustments made in the school had not reduced this perceived risk. Ana said: “When he ran away to the train station, no one noticed he was gone and he had to be brought back by two members of the public. They approached him and found he was trying to buy tickets to Inverness. “They were able to bring him back to the school office. On another occasion he managed to escape and stood in the middle of Glasgow Road shouting at cars to stop. He could have been killed. Thankfully those on the road at the time brought him back to school. “Their adjustments following this simply stated he should be restrained physically but he is just a small child. They should have someone supervising him when in the playground but apparently there are not enough resources for this. All he wants is to be loved. He has a beautiful soul and is such a loving human being.” Following Ana’s complaint about the treatment of her son, her concerns around his ability to escape was upheld by the Education Complaints Service. The service recommended the school review their procedures for responding to absconding to consider how to safeguard pupils in the period of time between pupils re-entering the building after break or lunch and a register being taken. However the service did not uphold her complaints regarding exclusion. Nor did they uphold Ana’s complaint relating to the incident where her son was injured in a classroom by another pupil. An Edinburgh Council spokesperson said: “Whilst we’re unable to comment on individual cases, we remain committed to the Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) principles and values. Providing the right support for children with additional support needs is a key priority together with clear safeguarding processes in our schools to protect our young people and staff.”
