Video shows an 8th-grade student being beaten by several other teenage girls
Fox: “Yesterday it was only a fight…it could have been a murder”
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Litira Fox, the mother of an 8th grader at A.F. Adderley, said she’s afraid to send her daughter back to school after the 13-year-old was ganged by several school girls.
In an exclusive interview with Eyewitness News, Fox said the incident came less than two weeks after she went to the school to report that her child was being bullied.
A viral video of the young girl being surrounded and beaten repeatedly has started making its way around social media.
The young girl could be seen being beaten to the floor multiple times by several girls in school uniform and one girl in casual clothing.
Fox said she was notified about the incident as she waiting to pick her daughter up on Tuesday afternoon.
She said the school called and told her that her daughter was in an incident and she “needed to come immediately” but no other information on the girl’s condition was shared.
“I’m now in a panic mode. I’m thinking I’m going to meet the hearse at the school or the ambulance. I didn’t know what condition I was gonna meet my daughter in.”
Fox said when she got to the school and laid eyes on her child and saw that she was relatively okay, she went to the school’s office to get an account of what happened.
That attempt however proved futile with staff in the office refusing to give her any information and advising her to come back on Friday.
“I can’t send my daughter back to the school. I can’t do that. I’m not that daring,” Fox charged, still visibly upset over the ordeal.
“No matter what they do at this point I don’t feel safe sending my daughter back there.” She charged that the situation did not have to come to this if the school had intervened nearly two weeks ago when she was initially made aware that her daughter felt uncomfortable.
Fox said her daughter came home from school on a Friday afternoon and told her that some girls were “bothering” her.
She said her daughter claimed about five of the girls had previously tried to approach her and tried to fight her.
Fox said she went to the school the next Monday and sought to get the school and parents involved but her attempts were ignored.
She said one of the staff in the office intervened by having her daughter bring the girls to the office, only two of whom showed up, and merely chastised the girls and warned them not to bother her daughter again.
She charged that the school did not do its due diligence in the matter because the principal was never brought in and the other girls’ parents were never called.
“That went nowhere. Absolutely nowhere,” she said.
Fox nervously insisted that she always told her daughter not to engage in fights because of the chance of how far the situation could go. However, now she said she feels guilty because her daughter was not able to defend herself against the gang of girls.
“I feel like I put my child in that situation,” she said.
“I went to the school and did what I was supposed to as a parent.
“If I was keeping my child from school, some days I don’t even know how I will feed my children, to know I making the sacrifice to send her there…and I can’t even be assured that she safe, that troubling me.
“If it was me not doing my part, the school would have sent social services to me.”
Intervention
Fox contended that had the school ultimately put in some effort to address the situation or call the other parents in, she would have felt better, but “nothing was done”.
While she said she understands the young girls are “children” and shouldn’t have to face harsh punishment, she insisted that “something has to be done.”
“Whatever happening to make these girls act the way they acting, it should be fixed,” she said, adding that the incident could have been anyone else’s child.
“Everybody ain’t gonna be as lucky as me to go picks up their child. I thank God I was lucky but everyone won’t be that lucky. “
The mother said she went to the police station to file a report over the incident but hopes that a less severe solution can be found.
“The school have to take it more seriously. They have to enforce stricter rules. When these girls can’t be controlled you need to find someplace to put them.”
Fox said both she and her daughter were looking forward to the reopening of school after months of virtual learning at home. Now, she said she has to decide on the best option for the safety of the young girl.
