An 11-year-old student of the New Amsterdam (NA) Primary School in Chapel Street had to be hospitalized and given oxygen after she was badly beaten by another student last Friday.
Marissa Narine, of Shoe Lane, NA said a boy in her class slapped her, pulled her hair and wrapped it around her neck. He then choked her and knocked her in her abdomen with his knees. The sixth grade student said the incident occurred just before the lunch break because she said something that the boy did not like.
After reading the story in this newspaper yesterday about Kennisha Bobb, a student of Belladrum Secondary who was “chopped” by another student behind her neck and had to be hospitalized, Marissa’s aunt and guardian Camille Reid decided to highlight her niece’s story.
Camille who works at the Town Council’s office in NA said she was at work when she got a call from the school that Marissa was involved in an accident and was going to hospital.
She said she went straight to the hospital in a taxi and when she got there her niece was about to be placed on a stretcher. The child’s eyes were rolling and she appeared as though she was having a seizure.
The girl had to receive emergency treatment and undergo x-rays. She also had to be given oxygen and about eight bottles of saline solution.
Camille said though the child’s condition has somewhat improved and she was discharged from hospital, she is unable to attend school because she is suffering tremendous pain “on and off.”
Stabroek News (SN) understands that a School’s Welfare Officer suspended the boy for one week when he turned out on Monday with his mother.
It was learnt that the boy, who is described as a class bully, often picks fights with other students.
Camille is grateful to the doctors and nurses at the NA Hospital as well as the teachers for the interest they have shown in Marissa. She said, “It is because of their prompt response that she is still here.”
The woman said she hopes that the Ministry of Education can take some urgent action in the matter before other children suffer in the same manner.
Meanwhile Kennisha had to be transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital by an ambulance yesterday morning. She is said to be improving but will undergo an MRI scan sometime today.
Kennisha had told SN that she had rested her head on the desk because she was having a headache when the boy chopped her three times with the side of his hand.
She was rushed to the Fort Wellington Hospital in an unconscious state and when she regained consciousness, started to behave deliriously.
