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A Pretoria primary school girl has been left traumatised after five of her classmates allegedly dragged her off to the bathroom, forced her to strip naked and searched her private parts for a R10 note they had accused her of stealing.
The 12-year-old Grade 7 girl was allegedly also threatened with having her head put in a flushing toilet bowl.
While the four girls attacked her, they allegedly screamed: “Where is the R10!”
The girl kept saying she did not have it, but they apparently did not believe her.
“A teacher walked in on the girls and basically saved her,” her distraught mother told The Citizen.
“My daughter refused to go to school and her grandmother had to go with her just so she could write her exams,” the mother said, crying.
Her daughter allegedly continues to be taunted at school.
Four of the girls were suspended with immediate effect and the school called their parents in. One of the girls was allowed to attend school this week, as she was writing exams, but will also be suspended once she is done writing.
“What made matters worse is that this latest child’s mother went to the school yesterday, intimidated my daughter, and told her everything was her fault. What if my daughter grows up and this has a negative effect on her life?” the mother wondered.
The school has, in the meantime, offered help to the child.
The mother went to the police station on Thursday to lay charges, but due to a misunderstanding, she planned to return on Friday to finalise it.
“I will fight for my child with my last breath. I will stand up for her, because she is not a violent person and she is not a fighter,” she said.
She said it had since emerged that the girl who accused her daughter of stealing the money had been bullying her for most of their school life.
“But this stops now,” the mother said.
The Gauteng education department has not responded to The Citizen’s requests for comment.
