A MOTHER has added added her voice to calls for a ban on BB guns after her daughter was shot in the head at school.

Rachel McGoldrick narrowly escaped severe damage to her eye when she was struck in the left temple with a ball-bearing fired just two metres away from her.

The 13-year-old had been standing with a group of friends by the Information Com-munication Technology block at Lytchett Minster School when the incident occurred.

It is alleged a fellow male pupil pulled out the gun from his bag and fired it.

In shock and suffering a wound to the side of her head, the now year nine pupil chose not to tell of the incident until later that evening.

But on hearing of the attack her concerned mother Julie went straight to the school the following morning to point out her daughter's injury.

After several weeks no response had been issued so the Turlin Moor Middle School classroom assistant then wrote to the school demanding to know what action had been taken.

A neighbour also contacted the police to report the incident and investigations were carried out but no arrests made.

"I didn't want him charged," said Miss McGoldrick. "I just wanted him to have a good warning of the dangers of his actions."

Shortly after the police intervention a letter of apology was received from the school stating that the parents of the boy had been called in and told the incident was "completely unacceptable".

The letter stated that the boy was "very sorry" and regarded the incident as an accident. It added that he had been given a number of detentions and the incident recorded on his records.

But Miss McGoldrick is unhappy by this response and believes more should have been done to raise awareness of the dangers of BB guns.

"The boy should have been excluded and the seriousness of the incident should have been drawn to the whole school's attention," she said.

"Children should not be allowed to own BB guns and it should not have been at school - no harm was done but it is what could have happened that is worrying."

Miss McGoldrick added: "You do not expect to send your child to school and have them come back in that state. I would like to see a proper response from the school and know that they are raising awareness of the dangers of BB guns."

Headteacher Stuart Clark did not want to comment on the incident but said it would never be appropriate for a student to bring anything resembling a gun onto the school site.

"This is a specific incident and is very much internal to the school and therefore I do not feel able to comment," he said.