Schoolboy cut after refusing to hand out a dollar

Cassandra Charles, a single mother of Georgetown, is asking the persons who are bullying and harassing her son Shamiah to stop.

“All I want is the freedom of my son so that he could walk the street,” Charles told SEARCHLIGHT.”{{more}}

“They’re always bullying him, I don’t know why,” she continued.

Shamiah, a 14-year-old student of the Georgetown Secondary School (GSS), has had to endure a series of unprovoked attacks during the last few weeks, Charles said.

The first was just about a month ago.

Charles said, during that incident, her son was beaten with a cutlass by another youth who is also a student of the GSS.

Charles maintains that the attack was unprovoked and that the matter was reported to the police. Action was taken against the student and the matter is before the court.

But her son would again be the victim of another violent encounter.

According to Shamiah, he was accosted by two youths he is acquainted with.

After a brief altercation, Shamiah told SEARCHLIGHT that he was cut on the upper part of his right arm by one of the two boys.

That matter was also reported, but the bullying against her son has not stopped.

On Thursday, June 3, a young man entered the compound of the GSS armed with a pair of scissors. Shamiah explained that the individual accused him of watching him funny.

He then threatened Shamiah and then started “firing stabs” at the young man.

Shamiah said he sought safety from one of the teachers at the school.

It was later revealed that the youth had a grievance with Shamiah arising from a previous altercation which occurred some time ago, Charles explained.

The distraught woman told SEARCHLIGHT that she has since taken measures to ensure that her son is not harassed, but still insists that something needs to be done.

“He is a big boy, I would not be able to take him to school every day,” the woman lamented.

“I’m just frustrated,” she continued, adding her son’s attempts to make complaints have often been overlooked.

Upon further investigation, SEARCHLIGHT was informed that the series of events is as a result of some bad blood between Shamiah and members of a gang that he was once a part of.

However, when contacted, Charles refuted the statements saying that she has no knowledge of her son’s affiliation with a gang.

Instead, she noted that her son has always been a serious child and that the issues of harassment and bullying also took place while her son was a student at the Petit Bordel Secondary School.

Charles said that she relocated him to Georgetown shortly after she returned from a brief stint abroad.

She says that she has no idea what has brought on the acts of violence against her son, but she wants peace for her child.

“What I need really is for something to be done so that my child can be freed and so that he can do well in school because it is having a negative effect on my son,” Charles said.