BULLIES UNTOUCHED

A 15-year-old student of the Guayaguayare Secondary School, who endured months of bullying by her female schoolmates, had to have emergency surgery after one of them slashed her face with a sharp object.

The form three student now suffers from facial paralysis after a nerve was severed in her face.

The girl has been attending a clinic at the San Fernando General Teaching Hospital and has had counselling.

The incident happened on June 6 at the school, and the girl’s family said since then there has been no investigation, as the group of 16-year-olds are still attending the school, while the 15-year-old is at home.

Her mother, who will not be named to protect the student’s identity, told Newsday her youngest child had been targeted by a group of fellow students for several months up until June, when she was attacked.

She said at first her daughter began complaining about one particular student constantly picking on her, calling her daily and calling her names. As the months passed, this student encouraged other girls to join her in bullying the woman's daughter.

“Soon it was a group of older girls against my daughter. They would pick on my little girl every day for months. She would come home crying every day. They would threaten to beat her, they would call her ugly names.

"She complained to the principal and dean. I went to the school and complained – and still these children continued to pick on my daughter until it came to this day: one of them slashed her face.”

The mother of three said she felt the school did not do enough to protect her daughter when she needed it the most.

“They knew that these girls had been continually threatening to beat my daughter, and still they let it happen.

"My daughter is now tramatised. She is scarred for life, physically and emotionally. She continues to have nightmares. She is hurting deeply. Some days she sits in a corner and cries for hours.

"I have heard about children being bullied at schools and I want other parents to know it is so real, it is a real thing. I have lived it, and it is a horror story.”

She said the injury to her daughter's face is close to her eye and she now having trouble with her eyesight.

“Part of her face is numb and her vision is sometimes blurred. My child could have lost sight to her eye, or possibly worse – and nothing was done.”

The mother recalled getting a phone call from a teacher in June to say her child had been injured and had been taken to the nearby health facility.

“I could not believe what I was hearing, and it was only when I got to the health centre and saw the extent of the injury I knew how serious it was.

"My daughter was bleeding, she was crying. I looked at her and tears came to my eyes.

"And then she told me what had happened – one of the students who had been bullying her slashed her face.”

She was told the group of girls grabbed her daughter outside a classroom. One of them pulled something out of her pocket and slashed her daughter's cheek, to her ear.

The mother said doctors later said one of the facial nerves had been severed and her daughter needed surgery. The wound needed 16 stitches after the operation.

She still has to go to clinic once a week.

"I don’t know how long it would take until she fully recovers, but I pray every day for her full recovery,” the mother said.

Her daughter continues to question why she was targeted.

“The way I have raised my daughter is to be a decent human being, a respectable young lady. She will never get in a fight or interfere with anyone, because she was not brought up so.

"She goes to counselling, and I talk to her consistently, but she is struggling to cope. I would not wish this on any child.”

The mother said the incident was reported to the Mayaro police.

Staff at the school and the Education Ministry could not be reached for comment.