Girl attacked after cyberbully ordeal

A girl was allegedly asked by the 15-year-old attacker to video her assaulting a fellow pupil at Krugersdorp High School. She was also bullied online, which experts say is on the increase. Photo: Supplied

A girl was allegedly asked by the 15-year-old attacker to video her assaulting a fellow pupil at Krugersdorp High School. She was also bullied online, which experts say is on the increase. Photo: Supplied

Published Feb 9, 2012

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First they called her fat and threw diet pills at her. Then they took to Facebook and BlackBerry’s BBM chat service with a series of threats, name-calling and nasty comments.

And when that wasn’t enough, the four Krugersdorp High schoolgirls marched up to the 15-year-old pupil and one hit her over the head with a glass juice bottle.

The attack during the first interval of the school day on January 30 was filmed. The video was recorded by another pupil, who had allegedly been asked by the attacker to film the confrontation.

In it, the attacker, wearing a pink headband, is seen walking across the school field, playing with the bottle.

The 70-second video shows the schoolgirl lean in to hit the girl with the bottle.

The victim steps back and the attacker steps in again to take a second swipe, but the victim, with blood on her forehead, moves out of reach.

 

The attacker, though suspended, was at school on Wednesday – less than 12 hours after the parents of both schoolgirls and the school’s lawyer had had a meeting at the school.

The victim’s mother, who cannot be named, has opened a case of assault against the 15-year-old attacker at the Krugersdorp police station.

And she is angry because the school did not tell her that her daughter’s attacker would be at school on Wednesday, and because she says the school did not handle the matter properly.

The mother said they were told there would be a disciplinary hearing, but neither she nor her daughter had been called to give their side of the story.

“They could have said this is the outcome and she will be back at school. The principal said he would call me when he was done with the report. But they said nothing. They did not handle this properly,” she said.

The mother said she wanted to give the school a chance to take action. “But the school did not sort it out. This is serious. It’s not a slap or pulling each other’s hair.”

She said her daughter was friends with the attacker and her group of friends at one stage, but they had drifted apart – and that’s when the cyberbullying started.

When the school reopened this year, the attacks started again. “There were threatening messages: ‘wait for Monday’; ‘we will beat you up’; ‘Monday is d-day’; ‘you going to die bitch’,” said the mother.

She told her daughter to approach a teacher to report the incidents.

“My daughter went to the deputy principal and told her that she was being bullied and threatened, and that she thought something would happen to her on Monday. The teacher said they would deal with it. But by first break my daughter was attacked.”

According to the mother, glass bottles are not sold at the school, so the attacker had brought the bottle from home.

The mother said that when the taunts started last year, she contacted the girls and asked them to stop.

“It happened on Facebook, so I didn’t want to take it to the school. I got hold of one of the girl’s moms, who said her daughter would never do anything like that. I did not think it was serious. I thought I had handled it.”

She said her daughter and her attacker were in the same class. “My daughter told me that she is not scared of this girl, but she does not want to go back because it is so uncomfortable.

“They could have come to me and told me that it was a first offence. If they did not expel her, I would not be happy but I will carry on with the criminal case.”

Gauteng Department of Education spokesman Charles Phahlane said the school governing body (SGB) had taken action and there was no provision for the department to step in.

He said the attacker’s hearing had taken place on Friday, but that the SBG had not yet made its final sanction.

He said parents had a responsibility to monitor what their children were doing on online social forums.

On Thursday, school principal Ivan Bailey told Sapa there had been an external governing body disciplinary hearing on Tuesday night to investigate the attack, and the girl had been allowed to return to school.

“A principal cannot expel a learner. There is a disciplinary procedure that has to be followed, and this has been done.”

Bailey said the attack was the culmination of a series of “shocking conversations” on Facebook and BBM.

“We do have school counsellors involved,” he added. “Cyberbullying is something we take very seriously.”

Izabella Little-Gates, an internationally published author and parenting expert from Lifetalk, said: “Cyberbullying is something that is escalating and should be taken seriously. It has to be addressed, and parents need to have discussions with their children about it.” - The Star

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