A child under the age of 11 is in serious health at the Children's Hospital of Manizales, after he fell from the second floor of his school last Tuesday. The events took place in the morning and, while the minor is recovering, the authorities are investigating whether it was an accident or a case of bullying.
The students of the José Antonio Galán rural school, in the capital of Caldas, are shocked by the fall of one of their classmates on April 19, who had to be immediately transferred to the Caldas Hospital and, hours later, transferred to the Children's Hospital. Medical reports from both health centers show that the minor suffered moderate head trauma, fractured the radius of the right arm and soft tissues.
Fortunately, the blow to the head did not compromise the minor's consciousness and he has been treated with painkillers and continuous neurological observation; in addition, his right arm remains immobilized.
The most serious aspect of the case is that, while the institution claims that the minor was playing with some classmates and accidentally fell, the relatives of the 11-year-old boy indicate that he was pushed by other students who were bullying him.
Claudia Yomaira Álvarez Morales, rector of the educational institution, spoke to Caracol Radio and pointed out that when the minor fell, they immediately activated the care protocol indicated for the case. “We activated all the immediate health routes that were necessary for the child to be cared for as it should be; we called an ambulance that moved quickly to school and was taken to a health facility for care.”
The station also spoke with a relative of the minor, who said that “it was apparently classmates who threw him off the second floor of the school.” He added that this would not be the first time that the child had been assaulted at school, since in previous days his school supplies had been broken and beaten.
For her part, the child's mother spoke to the local newspaper La Patria, noting that she had already spoken to the rector to report the harassment of her son and that since the minor had not told her anything about it recently, she thought the situation had stopped. However, the boy continued to be harassed by two classmates (boy and girl), who assaulted him and mocked his physique. “He hadn't told me those things. Those same minors are the ones from the accident. The boy pushed the girl and this at the same time my son, as he and other classmates told me. That pair of students damaged a primer in the past few days, after they copied a task that he finished first,” explained the mother of the minor who complained to the school directors.
However, the woman complained that the school did not receive the attention she expected for a bullying case, since the rector only called attention to the two children involved and made them pay for the materials that had damaged her son, but she expected them to be expelled. And as for the fall of the child, they told him it was all an accident.
For their part, the authorities of Manizales and school directors will be pending the case, which could be added to the other 37 of this type that have occurred in schools in the city; in addition to 47 problems of school coexistence; 2 of sexual harassment and 3 of violence.
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