Three students from the Sand Creek Primary School in the Rupununi were taken to the Lethem Hospital yesterday after they were hit to their head allegedly by the headmaster of the school who used a bell resulting in two of them sustaining cuts and bleeding.
The students, two girls and one boy, are all 10-years old. One girl, as a result of the cuts from the hits, had to get four stitches. The matter was reported to the Department of Education in Lethem yesterday and the matter is to be investigated.
Laurian Bernardine, the father of one of the girls, told Stabroek News he was informed of the incident by his wife at around 9am yesterday.
He recounted that his daughter is an athlete, and had left the home at 4:30am to practice, returned home for breakfast, and was supposed to return to the school at 7:30am. However, he said, she was a bit late, and when she arrived, she saw some students in front of the headmaster, putting up their hands.
According to Bernardine, his daughter was unaware of the reason for the students putting their hands in the air and so she did the same. “She raise up she hand (because) she think it was because she was late,” he recalled.
He said that the headmaster asked her if he told her to raise her hand and when she responded in the negative, she was hit. He said that the two other children were hit reportedly because they arrived late for school.
Bernardine said that the headmaster hit his daughter three times at the side of her head. He said that the man hit his daughter with the upper domed part of the bell hence she did not suffer any cuts.
However, according to the man, the two other children were hit with the edge of the bell and suffered cuts. He said that the girl bled badly while the boy sustained one cut. At the hospital, the girl received four stitches. “It’s just a simple thing,” he lamented.
After the incident, the upset villagers convened a meeting with the toshao, village council, and the district development officer and a decision was made to take the children to the hospital and report the matter to the Regional Education Officer. However, no report was made to the police. According to Bernardine, they wanted the matter to be investigated at the level of the ministry and are reluctant to involve the police.
He said that the Regional Education Officer (REdO) told them that she will try her best and a team will be sent to Sand Creek to investigate. The REdO was able to see the children yesterday.
According to Bernardine, such incidents are not uncommon at the school. Earlier this week, Stabroek News reported that two teachers who in February of this year were involved in the brutal flogging of two teenage girls at Awarewanau Primary School in Deep South Rupununi have been dismissed from the teaching service.
