Sunday, September 30, 2007

My niece

My 13 year old niece was assaulted at her Catholic School on Friday.
At recess, 2 girls threw her to the ground and kicked her in her stomach until other children pulled the girls off of her. There was a teacher on duty but apparrently she did not see anything. My niece did not report it because she was afraid, the girls told her that if she told anyone they would finish the job.
My niece went home and told her mother ( my sister in law) what happened.
My niece said she felt fine. Unfortunately my niece was not fine, as the night progressed she was in more and more pain. They brought her to the doctor.
She has 25 internal bruises, and is lucky that her spleen and liver were not damaged. The doctor's report states that my niece was assaulted.
My niece has been teased horribly since she has been in this school, it is her third year. My brother in law is Muslim.
My niece is terrified to go back to school. She already has had problems concentrating this year because of the harassment. She emailed the teacher and asked if the teacher can protect her because she is afraid. The teacher said she would talk to the girls. I think it is to late to just talk to the girls but that must just be the mother in me.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe your niece is better off in a public school. Sometimes I get the feeling that those going to public schools have an opportunity to experience a much higher level of tolerance than at somewhat insular private schools. At Packeminanscrewem High School, all kinds of kids get along with one another. Israeli kids hang out with Pakistani and Palestinian kids and everyone appears to get along and even socialize and date. It's not ideal in terms of class size and insane barbaric overcrowding, but these kids get along phenomenally well and almost always without incident. I'm so sorry she was so hurt physically, spiritually, and emotionally. Give her a hug for me; I hope she can attend another school with kids who actually believe tolerance not just say it in a prayer. Isn't the principal of the school involved at all? If this school tolerates this hate crime, they are not only hypocrites but are harboring criminals. At the least, the girls should be thrown out of the school. How could such violent and vile acts be tolerated while this poor girl's life is being destroyed by these hateful bullies?

Pissed Off Mom said...

That is the same thing I told my sister in law that my niece would have been better off in a public school. My niece is studious. She went to school on Monday she did not want to break her perfect attendance spell. The girls have been reprimanded, juvey records. The Principal has also been reprimanded by the Police who had to come up to the school and speak to her.
My husband is besides himself he wants to know how a school that teaches religion could allow this to be swept under the rug continously until an incident of this magnitude had to occur to open eyes.

New Older Teacher said...

Those girls not only could have seriously injured your niece, they could have killed her. I hope her parents pressed charges against the girls and against the school for doing little to stop this type of bullying. A warning is hardly enough when you are dealing with irrational and dangerous people.

Is it necessary for your niece to attend a private school? She would find much greater acceptance in a public school, where there is great diversity color and religion.