Tobago teen recuperating after beating

TWO months after he was beaten by a group of boys at his school, 13-year-old Rayon Radgman is resting comfortably at his father’s home in Goldsborough, Tobago.

Newsday was told that on March 1, Radgman, a standard four student at an Anglican primary school in Tobago East, was ambushed by five schoolmates who hit him several times.

On March 20, a teacher at Rayon’s school noticed him limping and, upon enquiring, was told of the incident which happened on March 1. He was taken to the Scarborough hospital on March 20, then transferred to the Mt Hope hospital. He underwent hip surgery on April 15, was discharged a day later and has since returned to Tobago.

Rayon’s mother Avion Robley told Newsday yesterday, he is recuperating slowly.

“He has to return to Mt Hope on May 14 for his first review. He is walking, but still not at 100 per cent. He still needs a little assistance from time to time. He attempted to walk a stone’s throw away to his aunt’s house, but he fell. The pain is still there.”

She said the brutal act was not an isolated incident, but the culmination of constant abuse at the hands of a boy who beats up, not only her son, but other class­mates as well.

Robley said she has since given copies of her son’s medical certificates to the police, as investigations are ongoing.

“They (the police) have already received some of the documents requested, but when we go down on May 14 for the check up, we would be able to give them the others as well as an update on his condition.”

To date, Rayon is yet to return to school.

THA Chief Secretary Kelvin Charles, who is also Secretary of Education, has since denied that the attack on Rayon was a case of bullying. Responding to a question from Newsday during a recent post-Executive Council media briefing, 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.”