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Girls beat kid black and blue
20/03/2007 22:55 - (SA)
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| Chavonne Olivier, 11, tells how she was beaten black and blue at her primary school in Pretoria by six pupils during a break. (Leon Botha, Beeld) |
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Virginia Keppler, Beeld
Pretoria - A primary school girl was choked, kicked and beaten by six Grade 4 girls until her nose bled in an attack during break at the Rachel de Beer Primary School in Pretoria.
Chavonne Olivier, 11, of Wolmer in Pretoria North and her parents have laid an assault charge with the police against the "bullies".
The girls hit Chavonne, who is in Grade 5, so hard on Friday that parts of her body are still blue and her neck was badly scratched.
She said it all began when her brother called a girl "redhead".
"I told the girl just to ignore it and turned around to walk away. The next moment, another girl grabbed me.
Had argued a few times
"Her friends held my hands while they hit me and kicked me all over. One tried to choke me, but I pulled away, and she scratched my neck to pieces."
Chavonne said she and one of the girls had argued a few times because she had said the girl was always "poking her nose into my (Chavonne's) affairs".
She said a prefect had to pull one girl off her and take them to the headmaster.
"The other girls all ran away."
"When we got to the headmaster's office he said he was going to phone our parents, but the other girl cried so much that he said it might not be a good idea."
Erika Olivier, Chavonne's mother, said the school had not phoned her by Tuesday to tell her what had happened.
"I heard about the fight on Friday afternoon when I went to fetch my child at school, and we went straight to the police to lay a charge."
Olivier said she thought the violent behaviour of the children indicated that something was wrong at their home.
Thuggery even in primary schools
Headmaster Hansie Holtzhauzen said he had informed the children's parents about the incident and he assumed they would be at school on Monday.
Democratic Alliance councillor Danie Eramus said the incident showed that thuggery had crept even into primary schools.
"School principals and parents should be prepared for this, given the amount of violence on today's TV and children's programmes."
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