Mother's urgent plea for intervention after daughter suffers ongoing bullying

A WHEELCHAIR-BOUND Cape Town mother has issued a desperate plea to education authorities, alleging that her daughter has suffered ongoing bullying and public humiliation -both from fellow learners and a teacher - at Atlantis Secondary School.

- TRACY-LYNN RUITERS

The mother said the emotional toll has become so severe that her daughter, who only recently started high school, has begun expressing suicidal thoughts. She is now calling for urgent intervention from the Western Cape Education Department (WCED).

“My child is being broken, day by day,” the mother said. “She's crying in the school office, she’s scared, she’s failing, and she’s telling me she wants to die.”

Her daughter’s name has been withheld to protect her identity and prevent further humiliation.

The situation reportedly escalated when the teen, who had a stomach bug, asked to use the toilet during class. Instead of being treated with compassion, a teacher allegedly mocked her in front of classmates.

“She was told to ‘sssh, ha mag werk’,” the mother said. “Then a boy in the class passed her a folded piece of paper, and when she opened it, he said, ‘is om ha hol af te vee.’ It was cruel, disgusting, dehumanising. How can a teacher allow this to happen?”

Since that incident, the mother said her daughter has been mocked by a group of Grade 11 boys.

“They've been saying, ‘there’s that girl,’ and laughing at her. They even formed a half-moon circle around her in the corridor. She feels completely unsafe.”

The bullying, she said, has deeply affected her daughter's academic performance and mental health.

“She used to love school. Now her marks have dropped, and just the other day she told me she wished she was dead. This morning she tried to go to school but came straight back home. She couldn’t take it anymore.”