Michael Dorfman
THE BOY WAS TURNED INTO A SLAVE
THE ISRAELI COUNCIL FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN:" The persons responsible for not reporting the incidents should appear in court."
A group of schoolboys at the Beer Sheban school "Makif Gimel" have turned a fellow student into a slave. During the last four (4) months, the boy was verbally abused; they extorted money from him, and forced him to run naked around the school stadium. The teachers and tutors witnessed these acts and they all remained silent. The boy’s Mother is taking her case to court. The Israeli Council for the Protection of Children declares, that the cover up of this and similar incidents is a crime and is punishable.
The group of ruffians from the Beer Sheban school " Makif Gimel " chose the victim, the student N., at the beginning of the academic year. They then, regularly beat him, extorted money, sent him to buy cigarettes, and verbally abused him. The most heinous part is that the teachers and tutors at school would not acknowledge what was occurring.
It has been three weeks since the boy has gone to school. "They forced me to bring various items, - tells N., - they forced me to serve them and if I refused they beat me viciously. I was constantly beaten ". The boy’s Mother relates, that N. often came home beaten and hurt, "I saw traces all time of the beatings on his face and on his hands, his broken bloody lips, but he told me that it occurred during a game of football. It was obvious that he was afraid, that if he complained and I would go to the school, they would beat him again ".
Some months later, during a parental assembly, the head master of the class approached the mother of the boy and told her that, apparently, the abuse was affecting the boy both "bodily and spiritually ". The mother then approached the pedagogical advisor of the schools for help, but she was advised to transfer the boy to a boarding school. The boy’s mother flatly refused: " What has he done, that he must be sent away from home? ".
The boy reluctantly relates the following - " During a class break I went to get a drink of water. They came up to me and demanded I give them cigarettes. I had none to give them, so they forced me to undress and run around of school stadium in my underwear. I could not refuse, because I was afraid, that they would beat me. "
For a long time the boy ran around of a basketball court, in front of the eyes of all the school, ... he was verbally abused, they pushed him, hit him and threw rocks at him. "After the bell rang, everyone returned to class and I dressed and also returned to class. It seemed, that all the children, together with the teacher, observed the event and then they laughed at me because of it ".
In spite of all of this, the boy said nothing at home and continued to go to school. The next day, the students in class laughed at him, teased him, asking why he ran naked." I was so embarrassed that I said that it was how I was dieting. What else could I say, since they threatened me not to say anything? I could not even tell my mother, because she would have gone to the school and everything would have begun all over again ".
The boy’s Mother accuses the school with some serious allegations, "How is it that nobody noticed anything? His teacher told me, that although my son sits in class, his thoughts are not with the lesson, but are elsewhere. How could this happen, that nobody was paying attention? "
"I hold the principal responsible for everything, that has taken place with my son, - writes mother of the boy in a letter to the director of the Negevski District of the Ministry of Public Education Amiram Haim. - The Responsibility also lays with the teacher who saw everything and found it unnecessary to report the incident, on the teacher who saw how my son was affected by this … They all bear the responsibility for the physical and the mental cruelty my son has suffered."
The boy has already missed a third week of school. In all this time not anyone from the school, not the principal, or the teachers, has taken an interest in the reason for his absence. " I demand, - writes the mother in her letter, -that they create a support group where my son could receive the necessary help to deal with his ordeal. And I demand that a court of inquiry be created within the Ministry of Public Education which will investigate and will reveal the guilty."
A standard answer was received one and a half weeks after the mother’s letter was sent, signed by Mr. Goldbershat, the coordinator of complaints at the Ministry of Public Education: "Your request will be investigated. "
The press-secretary of the Ministry of Public Education has stated: " The incident in question is referring to when a student was stripped of his trousers … the Teacher saw how the student was running around the sports court, all wrung out. The student was without a shirt and, it seemed to the teacher, smiling and cheerful. A commission for the investigation of the circumstances of this incident has been created.”
The person, responsible for Public Education in the Beer Sheban municipality, Deputy-Mayor Andrej Uzan, learned about the incident from journalists. He, too, has created a commission, which will investigate the incident.
Olga Filaretova, the chairman of association " La Merkhav - Projects in Education and Community ", which conducts support groups for the students who are victims of intercommunal enmity, states: " The commissions will not help. The public still has not learned of the conclusions reached by the commissions appointed by Deputy-Mayor Andrej Uzan, at the school meeting last November at the Rabin school. The commission was to investigate of the violence suffered by two schoolgirls. Nor have the conclusions reached about their investigation of the circumstances surrounding the death of Viki Marimonski last April, been published by the Deputy–Mayor. Indeed, none of their conclusions have been released for any of their investigations. (Vika was from the Rager School). The mother of the boy fairly demands not only punishments for the guilty, but also a creation of a support group, that will deal with the complex problem of rehabilitation for the victims of violence at school. These children are victims, just as there are victims of rape or victims of abuse in the family. We call upon the authorities and experts to support our efforts of rehabilitation for these children, instead of to hiding their heads in the sand and refusing to recognize a problem of violence in our schools. "
The chairman of the Israeli Council for the Protection of Children, Dr. Yitzhak Kadman, has expressed indignation at these occurrences and has declared, that the incident and the silence on the part of teachers and the principal, is a criminal offence as described in article 368 of the Criminal Code of Israel.
"Someone at school knew about the incident, but remained silent, - Dr. Kadman, stated - there is a tendency to ignore similar incidents and to not report them. If it is discovered that such was the case, the party responsible for the cover up of the incident with the child will appear at court."
The students in class watched the humiliation of N. on the school playground, verbally abused him, teased him, called him "sandger", that in slang means "prisoner". This latest incident occurred at Makif Gimel School, where, two years ago, the director of the school had forbidden the children to speak in Russian. The children protested by writing on the school walls an inscription, which said: "We have survived Auschwitz, we shall survive the school" … What is occurring in our Israeli schools if such terrible camp associations are kept in the consciousness of our children?
In preparation of this article, material from Journalist Gal Levinson from the newspaper "Kol a Negev " was used.
The Israeli Russian newspaper of " Novosty nedely (The News of the week) " 22/02/2001