The boy who was stabbed to the forehead with a screwdriver during an attack at a school will be transferred to another institution for his safety.
Mary Moniz, mother of Sean La Rose, 13, who was stabbed in the attack, stated that her son is in the process of a transfer to another school.
“He’s going alright but I’m just trying to get him into school,” Moniz said. She added that the decision was based on “safety reasons.”
Moniz further ex-plained that her son is not ready – both physically and emotionally – to return to school.
“Sometimes he would get headaches and one time he fall down. He can’t really deal with the sun either,” she said.
She added that since the stabbing on October 28, Sean had been avoiding discussing the incident.
According to the mother, the boy “doesn’t want to remember it at all.”
The mother expressed disappointment at the way the situation was handled. According to Moniz, the stabbing could have been avoided if the other students had immediately notified a teacher instead of waiting until her son had been injured.
“They just stood around and when it finished they just ran away. Some of them ran away and I guess some of them finally ran for a teacher,” she said.
Moniz further stated that the transfer process is almost halfway and her son is willing to move to a new school. “I want him to go in as fast as possible, pick up where he left off because he’s bright in school,” the mother said.
La Rose’s alleged assailant, also 13, has since been charged with attempted murder and although he has been released on bail he too is yet to return to school. In his case, the decision was not voluntary.
Last week, his mother revealed that some teachers of the school had raised objections to the boy’s re-entry and had deemed him a “lil murderer.”
Since then she has been seeking the help of the Ministry of Education in getting her son back in school. However, all her efforts thus far have been in vain.
“He’s not back in school yet and I didn’t get any proper answer from anybody yet,” the frustrated mother said. She explained that she had visited the Ministry more than once within the past week and called numerous times.
She is constantly being told that the woman who is dealing with her matter is unavailable.
“This is going to be a great effect on him because this is December term and if he misses the exams it’s going to throw him back a lot,” she said. Nonetheless, she is helping him with schoolwork at home.
When questioned on whether she was aware that objections had been raised to the boy’s return to school, Moniz admitted that she had but believed that the treatment was unfair.
“I think life should go on,” she said before adding, “He got this experience so he should pull himself up from that. I don’t think they got any reason to fight him going back to school.”
However, she opined, the boy needed counselling. “At least he got his mother at his side and she can counsel and guide him,” she said.
Moniz went on, “I don’t have any hard feelings against him; I just wanted my son to get better.
I wasn’t going to hold any grudges. I just want to get over this court thing and everyone must move on with their lives. The most important thing is that my son is alive.”
Moniz also said that she heard reports that the boy had been kept with adults while in police custody.
She further said that she was surprised by the news but admitted that she did not know much about the justice system and therefore could not judge the situation.
The other boy’s mother told Stabroek News that a complaint about the boy’s treatment was filed sometime last week; there is yet to be a response, she said.
The boy, who was charged with attempted murder, was initially remanded to prison but subsequently earned bail. His next court date will be on December 19.
