BULLIES WANT TO KILL USBy RHONDOR DOWLAT Thursday, December 10 2009
Two 15-year-old boys are pleading with Education Minister Esther Le Gendre and the police to save them from violent school bullies.
One terrified boy, and the parents of the other boy came to Newsday’s offices on Chacon Street, Port-of-Spain yesterday, to tell their stories of being afraid of the young thugs, who are also teenage schoolboys.
A timid-looking Marc Hodge has not even attended one class this term at the Malick Senior Comprehensive School, so scared is he of being either beaten or shot dead.
His trauma stems from being robbed and threatened as a student of Mt Hope Secondary School, which he last attended being assigned to Malick Senior Comprehensive after writing the 14+ exams in the previous term.
Robbed twice, in one instance $13 was stolen from him, Marc survived a third ordeal when a former student of Mt Hope told him he would be shot in the head.
The results of his exams did little to ease his fears when he learned he was placed as a Fom Four student at Malick Senior Comprehensive, which he sees as a “high risk” school. Marc believes he would be an easy target for bullies and wants to go to a “safe school” closer to where he lives in Arouca.
Jamie Pharai, an aunt who accompanied Marc to Newsday, said the family is still waiting for a response from the Education Ministry to their application for a transfer for Marc.
They have letters from Mt Hope Secondary commending Marc as a disciplined and model student. They even signed transfer forms with several schools, one of which agreed to take in Marc but administrators later changed their minds saying they had no room.
The family even tried to contact a school supervisor but have either been told the supervisor is unavailable, or been asked to leave messages. No one has contacted them yet.
Marc’s health is deteriorating because he is “taking on this traumatic situation”.
Marc admits he suffers from severe headaches and has been taken several times to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope for tests including CT scans.
“I really want to go to school. I love school and really want to get an education but I am too scared for my life. My new year’s wish is to get a transfer to a safe school. One that is closer to home and one that I can really feel safe to attend,” said Marc, who has not received any counselling.
In the second, unrelated case, the parents of Keegan Hunte want the police to arrest the students who beat their son so badly his left ankle was fractured. Keegan, a Form Two student, was attacked after classes at Mucurapo Secondary School on October 2.
He has not been to school since and now moves around with a pair of crutches.
Worried parents, Lennon and Susan Noray, of Diego Martin, said their son continues to receive threats and accused officers of the St James Police Station of “dragging their feet in the investigations”. Susan said the police never took statements from students who witnessed the attack, including one who captured the beating on a camera phone.
“He was badly beaten and during the attack my son was kicked on his left ankle, which was subsequently fractured. He was taken to the Mt Hope hospital where the ankle was put in a cast and he was warded for a week,” the worried mother said.
“Several days after my son was visited by three officers where they questioned him about the incident but no official statement was taken. On October 20, after two promises to visit my son at home the investigating officer came and took the statement.”
Susan has not heard anything from the police since then. Once, Susan contacted the investigating officer who said she had no time to take statements from witnesses and was on round-the-clock call for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Port-of-Spain last month. “CHOGM is over, still the officer has not made any attempts to complete her investigations,” Susan said.
Only recently, someone close to one of the schoolboys who attacked Keegan threatened him last Sunday, when Keegan was taken to a bazaar in Diego Martin, she also disclosed.
“That same night I called and informed the investigating officer about what happened and she or no other officer did anything. My son is going through a terrible ordeal since then. He cannot sleep. He is very scared for his life. Currently he is going through professional counselling.
“I am calling for some sort of action from the Acting Commissioner of Police James Philbert,” Susan said. Susan has written a letter to Philbert and was expected to send it to him yesterday.
These two cases of abusive bullies come even as the Education Ministry begins a series of interventions to curb school violence, with a mediation session among students from seven secondary schools at Centre of Excellence, Macoya today.
