His first day back at college in Plymouth was covered by the media and TV reports showed his classmates saying how proud they felt of him. Thomas himself even explained that he was glad to be back in a normal environment. However, once the TV cameras left the playground, jealousy, provoked by Thomas's success, appeared in some pupils and the Olympic star suddenly became a victim of bullying. At first the bullying started with people calling him names but Thomas thought that it would soon go away. However, the situation worsened and some pupils started throwing things at him and emptying out his pencil case in front of the rest of the class. When the bullying escalated to threats of physical violence his parents decided that they had to move Thomas to another school.