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State House Girls rocked by claims of bullying, as one student is hospitalised


A Form One student at State House Girls High School is admitted at a Nairobi hospital after she was allegedly forced to swallow a liquid detergent by bullies at her school.

The student started complaining of stomach ache and breathing difficulties on Saturday morning. Her parents took her to the Metropolitan Hospital in Buruburu.

The parents were given prescriptions and returned home with the girl as they tried to raise Sh15,000 so the hospital could scan her intestines for corrosion.

Shortly after 5.30pm, the girl’s condition deteriorated and she was taken back to the hospital.

A doctor at the Metropolitan Hospital told the Sunday Nation that she had drank the detergent on Wednesday, but he had not been shown the medication she had been given on Wednesday and Thursday.

But State House Girls principal Joan Muoti poked holes into the narrative the girl has been presenting regarding her ordeal at the school. She said the student had failed to name the alleged bullies despite claiming that it was the second time she was being tormented.

GOOD HEALTH

Ms Muoti said that when the girl left school with her father on Friday evening, she was in good health.

“She told me personally she was okay. She was from the farm on an agriculture lesson because her shoes were dusty when she came to my office.”

Ms Muoti said that the student had previously said that she wanted to be transferred from the school.

The student had told her parents and doctors that she had been forced to drink the liquid by girls who held her by the neck. The principal said it looked like “soap when put in water then stirred.”

Ms Muoti was shown the bottle from which the student was allegedly forced to drink at around 7.15am on Wednesday when two prefects came to her with the Form One girl.

“They told me that the student had called them, telling them that she had been bullied while hanging her clothes on the washing line at 6.30am,” said the principal.

“So, I asked the student, ‘Who bullied you?’ She said she didn’t see. I asked, ‘Why didn’t you see and there’s light at 6am?’ But she said they attacked her from behind and then made her drink something. The prefect was holding a small Jik bottle. But what was inside the bottle didn’t look like Jik because it looked a little thick,” the school head added.

She said the student was given milk by the school cateress and then taken to the school dispensary then to Iran Medical Clinic in Nairobi’.

SEEKING TRANSFER

After medication, she reportedly told the school principal that she was fine and attended classes until Friday.

“On Friday, she came and told me she wanted to go home. She said she was feeling well but wanted to talk to her father. The father came, was given a leave-out and left with the child. We advised that they go and talk. The student was calm and okay.”

At the Metropolitan Hospital, however, the doctor who examined the girl said that because it had been two days since she allegedly drunk the detergent, the impact had subsided but it still posed a risk to internal organs.

The school principal is convinced that it is a case where girls who have been in private primary schools find it hard to cope at a public secondary school and try to go back to the familiar.

“My research has shown me that many children who come from private schools don’t adapt easily to public schools life. Most of them look for excuses so that they’re transferred.”

“When a child says that she doesn’t want the school, we tell them to say they want a transfer instead of creating stories around the school and we shall release you. After all, we’re too congested. When they want to go to another school, we’ll be happy to release them,” she said.