A bullied high school pupil laced a chocolate cake with laxatives and rat poison and offered it to her tormentors.
|||KwaZulu-Natal - As payback for being bullied and having her lunch stolen every day, a KwaZulu-Natal high school pupil laced a chocolate cake with laxatives and rat poison and offered it to her tormentors.
Minutes after eating the contaminated cake, seven pupils of the Mzamo High School in Blaauwbosch, near Newcastle, suffered severe stomach cramps, vomiting, diarrhoea and became disorientated.
The chairman of the school governing body, JJ Mahlangu, said the pupils had eaten the cake during the first break at 11am, on Friday.
He said the sick pupils complained to their teachers and were taken to the staff room to rest.
Mahlangu denied claims by some parents that the teachers laughed at their children and had taken photographs and video clips on their cellphones.
All seven pupils were taken to Madadeni Provincial Hospital, he said. They were treated and discharged the same afternoon.
Some parents were upset that they had only been informed two hours after their children had been taken to hospital.
But Mahlangu said: “Our priority was to get immediate medical attention for the pupils. No one knew what they had been poisoned with. Once they were sent to hospital, the parents were immediately informed.”
The grade 11 pupil’s mother had bought the cake from a local supermarket for her family and the teen had taken it to school without her mother knowing, Mahlangu said.
“The family had eaten some of the cake the day before and none of them took ill. But the next morning before going to school, the pupil crushed the laxatives and some poison and sprinkled it on the cake.”
He said the pupil did not disclose where she got the laxatives or poison from.
Mahlangu said tensions were high at the school after the parents of the children who took ill demanded answers. They wanted the pupil to be charged with attempted murder.
“Yesterday we called an emergency meeting with all the parents. The parents of the girl who took the cake to school were in the dark about what had happened,” he said.
“The parents of the pupils who had eaten the cake were unaware that their children had been bullying this girl and stealing her lunch.”
Mahlangu said he had appealed for calm and for the parents to see that all their children had done wrong.
“I told them that we needed to sort the problem by accepting the wrong and encouraging the children to seek forgiveness.”
Charging the pupil criminally was not a solution, he said.
It is believed that some parents had attempted to report the incident on Friday but were turned away at the local police station.
They were allegedly told by police to resolve the matter with the principal.
“Fortunately, the parents came to their senses and agreed with me. The pupil apologised publicly to her friends and they in turn said they were sorry for bullying her and stealing her lunch.”
He said the pupils hugged and agreed to be friends.
“It was very emotional for everyone. But, I think it was a good lesson for all. They have been taught that they need to care for each other and not cause harm.”
The pupil had only wanted to make her “greedy friends” ill because she was frustrated at being bullied and having her lunch stolen every day, Mahlangu said.
She will not face criminal charges. The head of the Sizweni police station, Colonel Elphas Mnisi, confirmed the matter had not been reported to police.
He denied claims that parents had been turned away from the charge office on Friday when they had gone to report the matter.
KZN Department of Education spokesman, Muzi Mahlambi, described the incident as shocking.
“Bullying and revenge attacks at schools are very worrying and we are disturbed by it,” he said, warning that such behaviour at schools would not be tolerated.
“Parents and teachers need to constantly remind children of the dangers of bullying,” Mahlambi said. “In some cases pupils have sought revenge with guns and knives.
“Fortunately in this case, it was not so drastic. But, if the teachers had not acted promptly it could have had disastrous results,” he said.
“No one could have prevented this. Who would have ever anticipated that a pupil would take a poisoned cake to school?”
Mahlambi said they appealed to all concerned to create an awareness around bullying and for victims to report such tactics to teachers.
“Victims of bullying must not suffer in silence. Help is always at hand.”
Daily News