Bullied boy, 15, attempts suicide
A GRADE 9 learner, 15, who was brutally assaulted at Hoërskool Kempton Park attempted to commit suicide after a video of the incident went viral this week.
The video surfaced on social media showing a burly boy brutally assaulting a smaller boy in the toilets.
Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi, who went to the school yesterday, said the incident happened last week.
“The school managed to report it to the district and since then have instituted a disciplinary hearing that will sit this evening (yesterday),” he said.
The mother of the assaulted boy, who cannot be named to protect her son’s identity, told The Star yesterday that her son, who was humiliated and embarrassed by the incident, attempted to take his own life on Tuesday night.
“My son is not taking this very well. He tried to commit suicide last night,” she said.
The mother said her son was called into the school toilets and was attacked by the bigger boy over a dispute about a girl in the school that her son used to date.
“He went into the bathroom and there were about five boys who he didn’t recognise… he looked around and as he turned around the boy started hitting him,” she said.
The mother said the boys kept asking her son: “What is your problem with the girl?” and he did not know who they were talking about until her name was mentioned.
“He basically didn’t know what was going on and then they said the girl’s name and he said ‘I’ve got no problem with her. We broke up and I blocked her. There is no problem’ and he kept hitting my son,” she said.
The mother said the boy sustained injuries to his back while his head had a big bump and was also bruised all over. He has already begun physiotherapy.
The MEC said all the affected parents would be kept abreast and psychological support was offered. He confirmed that a police investigation of the matter was also under way.
The mother said that despite Lesufi’s announcement that psychological support was offered, her son did not receive any support until she called the MEC out on Twitter.
By the time the department’s spokesperson, Steve Mabona, called her, the boy had already seen his psychologist on Tuesday.
“My son has been embarrassed, humiliated. He crawled around in the bathroom trying to protect himself from a bully and now this thing has gone viral. Everyone has seen it and he’s scared to go to school,” she said.
Lesufi said the perpetrator would write exams in isolation. However, the mother said her son could not study.
She further said that she was glad one of the learners took the video and posted it because the school downplayed the incident.
“I’m glad that boy took that video because without that video I would not have known the severity of this case because I was told it was nothing serious until I saw the video on Friday and that’s when I laid the case,” she said.
@Chulu_M