Pretoria - The mother of the Pretoria North teenager who committed suicide after being bullied at Doornpoort Primary School, said she was not coping.
“I am in pain. She was my best friend, we did everything together.”
Lina Thibane, 33, said the family wanted to set the record straight on the events that led the Grade 6 pupil, aged 13, to committing suicide.
Thibane was unable to speak, so her sisters told of how the girl sent a “please call me” to her mother.
She wanted to be fetched from school because she was scared of a girl who was threatening to expose her “naughty video”.
She also reported the bullying to her teacher who apparently said she would deal with the matter.
On Friday, the child refused to go to school.
“On Saturday and Sunday, she was fine, but a boy called her mother on Saturday to say someone had posted the video of her on Facebook,” the family said.
On Monday, at about 5 am, she went to her mother to tell her that she was terrified to go to school.
Her mother went to see the principal, but the principal told her she would resolve the issue only when both pupils were at the school.
Later when the mother was busy with chores, she kept on going in and out of her daughter’s bedroom.
“She had a feeling that maybe her child might have thrown herself in the pool. She found her hanged, not far from where she was washing the dishes. She checked her pulse and she was not breathing and called her father,” the sister said.