A Philippi mother is devastated after her seven-year-old daughter was allegedly raped by a Grade 3 pupil at school.
|||A Philippi mother is devastated after her seven-year-old daughter was allegedly raped by a Grade 3 pupil at a Mitchells Plain school.
The mother, who can’t be named to protect the identity of her daughter, said the girl, who is in Grade 2, did not want to return to school and had been at home since the alleged rape on Friday.
The woman said her daughter had been bleeding and told her that she had fallen down. “I took her to the doctor and found out she was raped.”
She said her daughter told her a boy had grabbed her from behind, taken her behind the toilets and raped her.
The mother then went to the police and the Red Cross Children’s Hospital, where doctors confirmed what her daughter had told her.
One of the mother’s colleagues said the woman was traumatised and needed counselling as she was “breaking down”.
She said her colleague had decided to tell her story because she didn’t want the same thing to happen to other children.
The school has launched an investigation into the incident and police have confirmed that the mother opened a case of rape.
Bronagh Casey, spokeswoman for Education MEC Donald Grant, said the first priority was to ensure that the victim had the relevant support and counselling.
“Counselling support has been offered to the alleged victim. The department is also ensuring that the alleged perpetrator receives the appropriate counselling.”
She said the alleged incident had taken place on the school premises before school hours.
“The school is working closely with the investigating officer from SAPS and is conducting their own separate investigation. At this stage they do not see the alleged perpetrator as a threat to the other learners but are closely monitoring the situation.”
Casey said once the school’s investigation had been completed, the school governing body would decide on the appropriate action.
Police spokesman Warrant Officer November Filander said the investigation was ongoing and the investigating officer was awaiting further instruction from the senior public prosecutor.
Edith Kriel, a social worker with the Child Trauma Centre and Jelly Beanz Inc in Table View, said the children would need long-term counselling.
She said the alleged perpetrator would have to be assessed to understand why he was acting out in this way. She said it was possible that he had been exposed to sexual abuse.
Kriel said it happened often that children were sexually abused by children.
“This is not taken seriously because people think it is just kids. The matter then remains unresolved but the inappropriate behaviour is not addressed.”
Kriel said several questions needed to be asked. This included “how did he manage to engage the little girl and keep her in a position where this could happen, were there other children involved or who were witnesses, and was there no adult supervision”.
Samantha Waterhouse, parliamentary programme co-ordinator at the University of the Western Cape’s Community Law Centre, said both children needed intervention.
“A child of that age usually expresses their own experiences of being distressed or dominated.
“What also needs to be looked at is how we as society deal with these cases. We jump to conclusions and one of the negative impacts is that we stigmatise the child as the problem and don’t deal with the societal contexts.”
ilse.fredericks@inl.co.za - Cape Argus