School girl traumatised after bullying

Gakenke - A student at ACEDI-Mataba in Gakenke District is hospitalised with trauma after fellow students wrote her a note threatening to torture her for making them get reprimanded by the school’s administration.It all started when Christine Akimana, a Senior Four student, found her clothes, beddings and books smeared with human waste.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Gakenke - A student at ACEDI-Mataba in Gakenke District is hospitalised with trauma after fellow students wrote her a note threatening to torture her for making them get reprimanded by the school’s administration.

It all started when Christine Akimana, a Senior Four student, found her clothes, beddings and books smeared with human waste.

She reported the case to the school administration, who punished the suspects with strokes of the cane.

"After that incident, the students wrote to her threatening that she would pay for making them get caned,” Jeanne Uwimana, a friend who was attending her in the hospital told The New Times.

The case is now being handled by Police who say the incident is proof of the Genocide ideology harboured among students.

Akimana, who lost all her siblings and parents during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, is currently admitted at Nemba Hospital.

When contacted, the school’s director, Egide Shingiro, confirmed the reports, but added efforts were being made to uproot Genocide ideology at the school, including setting up students’ unity and reconciliation clubs.

Police arrested a 20-year old student, Delphine Nyirambabazi, who is said to be the ring leader.

According to sources, the suspect was allegedly handed a one-week suspension.

The threatening note is said to have surfaced immediately after Nyirambabazi returned to school after her suspension.

The note brought back sad memories to Genocide survivors at the school. This was one of the ways previously used to persecute them.

ACEDI-Mataba, a science technical school, was founded by Fabien Neretse, a Genocide fugitive.

This paper first reported the presence of Genocide ideology in the school in 2008.

Subsequent investigations conducted by the parliamentary committee set up to investigate Genocide ideology in schools ranked ACEDI-Mataba the top in the country.The school’s board of Governors has since been dissolved.

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