Help! First year teacher - parents FURIOUS at me.

First-year teacher here and I could really use some help.

Two students in my class have ongoing issues with another student. I’ve separated them, changed groups, removed activities that were causing problems, changed bounds and provided extra support and involved leadership.

Their parents have now emailed saying the boys have been bullied by this child “every day” for five months and are very upset that incidents haven’t been reported.

There have been two recent incidents:

1. Alleged spitting:
A student told me the other child spat in his mouth. I spoke to several students who were present and my assistant who was present; nobody saw spitting. The other child denied it and said he was saying “shh.” I separated them and thought I had dealt with it. I didn’t contact the parents.

2. Eraser incident:
I saw the other child throw an eraser towards the student. At the time, I didn’t realise it was a hard/aggressive throw. The next day, the student told me it had caused a bruise. I recorded it in the school system but forgot to contact the parents ( I know this was a big fuck up! )

I know I should have communicated the injury, and I feel awful about that. I just forgot. What’s throwing me is that I genuinely haven’t experienced these children as being bullied every day, so there seems to be a significant disconnect between what the parents are hearing at home and what I’m seeing at school.

I’m meeting the parents and will involve leadership.

How would experienced teachers approach this meeting? How would you handle this ? They are furious.