An 11-year-old girl was diagnosed with concussion at A&E after five classmates beat her at a primary school in Kaimakli, Nicosia, on Tuesday because she had celebrated a goal, her parents said.
It was the third time she had been attacked since mid-October, despite warnings to the school and the Ministry of Education, Sport and Youth, the parents told Phileleftheros, calling on the ministry to take responsibility.
The head teacher called the father at 1pm on Tuesday to tell him his daughter had been hit and was crying, he said. His wife went to pick her up. The girl was dizzy and felt sick.
According to the father, children from the family’s own circle stopped the beating, and supervising staff noticed afterwards. At A&E she was also found to have bruising all over her body and blood in her urine.
“They beat my baby quite badly,” the father said.
The first incident happened on October 16 and the second on October 19, at first involving two or three children over trivial matters, he said. The family told the school management the situation could not go on, and they were assured the matter would be resolved and such incidents would stop. The day after the second incident, they emailed the ministry, which replied that it would inform the school’s new inspector.
Police took a statement on the advice of the family’s lawyer, who is handling the case as the family had warned the ministry beforehand, the father added. The family has a certificate from A&E and wants the ministry to explain how they can send their daughter back to school and who will take responsibility. Once children are at school, he said, they are in the care of other adults.
His daughter was diagnosed with ADHD some years ago and is supposed to be supervised by a carer, he said. When the family asked where the carer was, they were told the carer also has other duties. He has to take her to school on Friday, he added.
The mother said she had first feared a panic attack and concussion because her daughter had been hit on the head, and that the blood in her urine was found at A&E. The school kept the girl there for an hour in that state, she said.
“I sent my child to school and picked her up to take her to A&E,” she said.
Nobody from the school had explained what happened, she told Phileleftheros. When she went to the school on Wednesday morning to hand in her daughter’s sick note, the head teacher did not ask to see her.
She noted that this was not the first case of school violence to come to light recently, and asked what the ministry was doing about it and why nobody there had lost their job. The Education Minister must understand that the post carries responsibilities, she said, pointing to incidents in Aglantzia, Latsia and Larnaca.
