Almost three months after her 8-year-old son Richard Boodram was brutally beaten by five of his former classmates at the Mon Repos Primary School his mother, Devika Persaud, said that the injury he sustained to his left eye is affecting his schoolwork.
Persaud told Sunday Stabroek yesterday that due to the attack which occurred on November 1st, last year, she made the decision to transfer her children to a private school although she is still struggling financially.
Boodram’s left eye was infected as a result of the blows he sustained which resulted in him having blurry vision since he was hospitalised after the incident.
She revealed that although her son seems to be doing fine in school one of his teachers complained that he misses words or letters when writing notes. His eye doctor, she says, said the same. “The doctor say that he can’t see them words what he does show he,” Persaud said. In addition, she said, her son still complains of having blurry eyesight and sometimes says that he cannot see. The mother hopes that her son’s condition improves sooner rather than later because his inability to see properly is affecting his schoolwork. Boodram’s grandmother added that he was one of the top performers when he was attending the Mon Repos Primary.
However, she noted that the infected eye is still in its healing stages so a diagnosis is yet to be made but she fears that he will have to wear glasses.
Persaud added that other than those issues her children are coping at their new school. She also said that she no longer trusts the public school system because up to yesterday afternoon she had heard nothing about the investigations into the fight or if any of the children who committed the act were sanctioned.
According to the Persaud, she found out that her son was the victim of a vicious attack, which was committed by five of his classmates, a couple of days after her son was hospitalised. Boodram reportedly told doctors what happened to him in the presence of Persaud. The mother had told Stabroek News that she noticed that her son was acting strangely when he came home from school on November 1st and refused to eat as he wanted to just lie in the chair. “He take the food and he put it back on the table and he cover it; he didn’t eat and he go and he lay down on the chair,” she had said.
As the days passed, Persaud said, her son’s condition continued to worsen and she eventually admitted him to the hospital. At that time, she was asked by the doctors if he was beaten but being unaware of what had transpired on November 1st, she told them no. However, two days later, when her son was visited by another set of doctors, he told them and her that he was beaten by five of his classmates. “He said to them that five boy beat he in the school yard and all five of the boys is in he class,” Persaud said.
Persaud disclosed that her son is in the fourth grade and is the smallest boy in his class at the school. “He find a ball in the school yard and they fighting he for the ball and two of them hold he down and one of them tek a wood and lash he in he head and another one come from behind and take a bottle and lash he pon he neck back,” the mother related, stating that that is what she found out.
As a result Boodram had to undergo numerous CT scans as well as a MRI scan while his left eye developed an infection. Persaud had to leave her job in order to take care of her son, who was hospitalised for more than a month after he was admitted to the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Officials from the Ministry of Education visited Boodram at the hospital and promised to assist Persaud but she said that so far she has not received any help from them.
