Primary school assault

Last week we reported on a case of a primaryschool child being admitted to the Georgetown Public Hospital after being beaten by five of his classmates. It was described as a case of bullying, but this went well beyond bullying; it was a serious physical assault. What would have horrified any normal reader would have been the fact that the boy was only eight years old, and that his assailants presumably fell into the same or similar age category.

Among other things, he was struck in the head with a piece of wood. The photographs taken of him when in hospital look horrendous, showing his puffed-up face with eyes swollen shut. In addition, his mother told he was bleeding from his eyes. He was not taken to hospital immediately, because he said nothing about the incident when he went home, and it was only later that the full consequences of his attack began to make themselves physically apparent.

The boy’s name is Richard Boodram, and we reported yesterday that in some respects he was improving, since he was now eating and the pain he had been suffering had subsided considerably. This newspaper was told by his mother that his eye swelling had started to go down earlier this week, but that recently his left eye had begun to swell up again. An ultrasound was done after it was noticed that the child’s stomach was distended, and doctors have now said that his liver is swollen. If all of that were not enough, Richard’s mother, who is a single parent, has to find the money to pay for scans to be done in order to establish whether her son has suffered brain injury as a consequence of the blow to the head.

These are not minor injuries for an adult to sustain, let alone an eight-year-old, so what, everyone must be wondering, triggered the infliction of wounds of such a potentially critical nature. It would appear that Richard had been a victim of bullying by the same boys before, according to what his aunt had been told by her children, who attend the same school. In addition, there may have been two attacks on the day in question – November 1 – not one. Richard’s cousins heard other pupils talking about the incident, and they said he had been beaten during the lunch break as well as after school at 2 o’clock. He apparently told his friend not to tell the teacher about the 12 o’clock case of aggression, because if he did he would be beaten more.

One presumes that most of the serious damage was inflicted during the assault when school was over, and according to what Richard himself related it started when his tormentors fought him for a ball he had found in the school yard.

According to his mother, two of them held him down and one of them took a piece of wood and lashed him in the head, while another came from behind with a bottle and struck him on the back of the neck. It appears that at some point he became unconscious, and when he came to, he noticed that the piece of wood he had been hit with had a nail sticking out of it.

The crucial issue is what the authorities are doing in response to this matter, from the school itself to the Ministry of Education. Richard’s aunt had told this newspaper that there was an issue of bullying and lack of supervision at the school, Mon Repos Primary. That much, at least, seems self-evident. For most parents it will seem inconceivable that such young children could potentially be in real physical danger in a school environment, and the school, it must always be remembered, is supposed to be acting

Certainly the headmistress doesn’t seem to have much idea about what goes on in Mon Repos Primary. This newspaper was told that when Richard’s mother and aunt went to see her about the matter, they were informed that she was only aware of the situation now that they had brought it to her attention. The mind boggles. Here is the head of an educational institution who knows nothing about serious physical assaults by eight-year-olds in her own school yard, and the hospitalisation of the victim as a consequence. What kind of primary school is she running?

The headmistress was told the names of the five boys involved, and Richard’s relatives understood that the pupils were instructed to report with their parents to the school. They were informed that she would investigate the complaints.

In the circumstances that really does not sound good enough. To start with, the boys should have been immediately suspended, although in fairness to the headmistress, she may not have the power to do this without the imprimatur of the Ministry of Education. It is not known either how long she took to alert the Ministry. After she did, however, the question is what action the officials there took, and how quickly they responded after they were contacted. What can be said is that although the story went into the public domain last week, the education authorities have had no public statement to make on the matter. Just what excuse do they have for this dilatoriness?

Yesterday we reported Richard’s mother as telling us that last Friday while they were at the hospital about 11 people arrived who said they were from the Ministry of Education. They told her they would have to check with the doctor who was treating the boy, and that they would subsequently return to see him. However, they did not come back, she said. It could be of course that they could not find the doctor at the time, and whatever else is said, they will need an official medical assessment of Richard’s injuries.

That apart, they also need to communicate with Richard’s mother, and tell her exactly what they are doing to address the matter and what has happened so far. After the Friday encounter with the Education bureaucrats, she is not sure what she should do next, and so the boy’s grandmother is proposing to visit the Ministry to find out what is being done. This is disgraceful. The victim’s family should not be the ones to go chasing Education officials for basic information in a case of this kind. It might be added, that since Mon Repos Primary School is responsible for its pupils on school property, even if they have just been dismissed, then Richard’s mother should not be asked to pay for scans to see if her son has sustained brain damage; that should be paid for by the Ministry of Education.

There are two further points. Is the Ministry conducting an investigation into the running of Mon Repos Primary, and the problems it is encountering, more particularly in the area of discipline? This is something the public needs to know. Parents of school-age children do not need to be told that there is something fundamentally wrong when eight-year-olds behave in this manner. How come the Ministry doesn’t seem to be bothered? Clearly they had no programme to deal with bullying – which was the initial stage of events, before the perpetrators moved on to something more violent – in Mon Repos, and presumably in any other primary school either. Isn’t it time they started to take the subject seriously?

Which brings us to the issue of the 8-year-old assailants. What is the Ministry intending to do in their case? Under normal circumstances, their age notwithstanding, this should be a police matter, because the attack constituted a serious physical assault, resulting in what is sometimes referred to in adult circumstances as grievous bodily harm. Does the Ministry intend to report what happened to the police? And in the interim, just what action has the Ministry taken in regard to the perpetrators? Certainly not, one imagines, a return − however temporary − to Mon Repos Primary, or any other normal primary school for that matter.