Linden girl hospitalized after stabbed by schoolmate

-stabber was reportedly tormented by other students

A 13-year-old girl from the Linden Foundation Secondary School was hospitalized last Thursday after being stabbed by a schoolmate following an altercation a short distance from the school.

According to reports, school had been dismissed early last Thursday to facilitate the annual prize-giving exercise and while in the company of a teacher near the school the  thirteen-year-old was attacked and stabbed in the back by a fifteen-year-old schoolmate following a quarrel.

Meanwhile, the thirteen-year-old is in a stable condition at the Linden Hospital Complex but she is unable to walk or sit up. Her parents and other relatives are praying for her speedy recovery.

Giving her account of what had transpired on the day in question, the 13-year-old said that she had turned back as the teacher was going to intervene in a matter where the same 15-year-old had hit another student who was walking a short distance behind.

In the presence of her mother at the hospital, the child related that during the investigation by the teacher, the 15-year-old hit her and she retaliated. “She had absolutely no reasons to hit me and when miss asked she why she hit me she give no reason. She pelt me and I pick up the same brick and pelt back she but it hit the gate,” said the injured child. A cousin of the victim and the alleged aggressor reportedly had a problem in the past.

The 15-year-old girl who lives a short distance away from the scene went home and armed herself with a knife and attacked the victim. According to  the injured child a stab was directed to her right side which grazed her and a second caught her in the left region of the back.

“I could have lost my only child just like that but I understand that this girl had a lot of problems but I still feel she could have vented her anger differently,” said the injured child’s mother.

The child was rushed to the Linden Hospital Complex where she underwent emergency surgery in the theatre.

Divert

According to her mother they were at the hospital for a while when a doctor came in with abdominal pains and he was informed about the girl’s injury  and was forced to divert his attention to operating on her since he assessed her condition as serious.

“God stir up he with a belly pain and caused him to come out and save my child. When he got there her face had started swelling, and the blood was clogging up in her,” said the mother.

The child is said to have sustained injuries to her left lung and the doctor had to insert a tube in her side to drain the blood.
The alleged aggressor is said to have been frequently teased by other students in the school. According to a teacher, most days she would have to jump the fence to avoid being tormented at the school gates. “I remember going to the office one day and seeing that child there crying, saying that she was afraid to go home through the gate because she was going to be beaten,” related a teacher. Another said that the day before  she was beaten with a piece of wood by another student.

Following the incident Stabroek News learnt that the alleged aggressor returned to her home, washed the knife and upon the arrival of a police officer she turned the weapon over and admitted to committing the act. She was taken into custody where she remained  until Sunday. She is currently on station bail and the Department of Education Welfare Unit and the Child Care Unit of the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security are looking into the matter.

Attempts to contact relatives of the alleged aggressor have proved futile.