Schoolgirl, 8, stabbed in eye

“Honestly I don’t feel comfortable leaving the children in the school because there has been too much bullying at the school, and when you talk for your rights, nothing is being done,” said Candice Waldron, Aaliyah’s mother.

Candice told Newsday this was the second time her child had to be hospitalised within the space of a year. The mother explained that Aaliyah who is now a standard one student at the school, was injured in similar fashion about a year ago.

On Wednesday, the girl’s father called Candice and explained that she had been stuck in the eye with a pencil which another student was playing with, and that he had taken her to the Woodbrook Health Centre.

Doctors treated her and advised further treatment at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EW MSC) in Mt Hope. “This is not the first time something like this has happened to my child at that school,” the woman said. “Last year, around September or October, a teacher called and said my daughter was stabbed in the eye with a pencil by another student. They did not call an ambulance or anything.

I had to come and take her to Mt Hope, because the eye was oozing. The doctors gave us antibiotics but since then she has been complaining about having eye problems.” The mother of four said she sought assistance from the Education Ministry to have her daughter transferred but to no avail.

After the school’s management brought in counsellors from the TT Police Service to speak to the students, incidences of bullying died down and Candice allowed her daughter to resume classes.

All of that changed on Wednesday last when her daughter was again stabbed in the eye. “If a parent comes to the principal or one of the teachers in this school, they should take more heed to what the parent is saying. It is not me alone who has been complaining about children being damaged at the school.” Attempts to reach officials at the Ministry of Education and the school for comment proved futile.