Charles: Boy with broken hip wasn't bullied

Kinnesha George-Harry

Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Chief Secretary and ​​Secretary of Education Kelvin Charles has denied the attack on 13-year-old student Rayon Radgman was a case of bullying. Radgman's hip was broken after he was beaten by a group of boys on March 1.

Responding to a question from Newsday last Thursday, Charles said, “Bullying suggests a continuous harassment over time. The impression that I have gotten, from the reports I’ve seen, suggest it was a one-time incident. I would want to think that if it was bullying that the school would have been involved and the parent would have made some report, if not to the school, to the Division,” he said.

Newsday was told that Radgman, a Standard Four student at an Anglican primary school in Tobago East, was ambushed by five fellow students, who hit him several times. His mother, Avion Robley, said she only learnt of the incident on March 20, as her son never told anyone .

He was taken to the Scarborough General Hospital on March 20 and transferred to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Trinidad, where he underwent hip surgery on April 15. He was discharged a day later and has since returned to Tobago.