Student brutally attacked

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A CedarBridge student was brutally attacked and had his jaw broken in four places during a lunchtime brawl, The Royal Gazette has learned.

Family members said the attack in a courtyard near the cafteria captured on videotape was “like watching barbaric animals”.

Five students will be charged in Magistrates’ Court next week, in connection with the attack on the 16-year-old boy.

School principal Kalmar Richards confirmed to this newspaper the students involved have been removed from the school and placed in alternative programmes.

Student safety and academics are top priorities, and “the school has a number of procedures in place for safety”, she added . (See related story)

The incident occurred on November 6 and Raymond Crofton Jr will undergo a second round of surgery on Monday.

Family member Rayneika Crofton, 27, who saw the videotape recorded on the school’s surveillance cameras, said it was “like watching barbaric animals”.

“One boy kicked my brother in the face and the rest just followed. My brother couldn’t watch it, he gasped when he saw the first kick and left the room and I watched the rest of it.”

Her father, Raymond Crofton Sr recalled the day he received the call from the school while on his way to work.

“I was told my son was rushed to the Emergency Ward with a tooth knocked out. When I got there I found it was more serious than that, the doctor showed me the X-rays.

“His jaw was shattered in four places, I couldn’t believe it. Two days later he was in surgery for more than five hours; his mouth has been wired up ever since. He goes into surgery again next week to remove the wiring; then he will need extensive dental work to replace his teeth.“

When the final tally on medical costs is in, he will forward the bills to the school and the Ministry of Education.

“They have to be held accountable, and at the very least your child should come home in the same physical condition he was sent to school in.”

Father and daughter want to know why there were no security guards visible on the videotape. “I only saw one male teacher struggling to hold down another student to stop him from fighting,” said Ms Crofton.

“My brother was lying on the ground in a foetal position and you could see five male students kicking him in the mouth one by one.”

She said it was obvious from the video that a fight had already broken out and that her brother was not involved in the initial brawl.

“From what I could see he was trying to help the teacher break up the fight. Nobody even came to his assistance after he was injured,” she said.

“As a former student it seems as if things have gotten much worse. There were two stabbing incidents just before I left in 2002. One student stabbed a security guard, another student stabbed a fellow student in the cafeteria,” she said.

“I have two young children and I’m worried, with two senior schools I’m not sure I want my children in that environment ever. No one should have to worry about their children’s safety while they’re in school or if they’ll come home in one piece.

“They don’t want you to put your hands on somebody else’s child. I went off in the hospital when I saw my brother. My family had to calm me down, I know I have to let the law deal with this but it’s time to call it like it is and get to the root of the problem,” said Ms Crofton.

“These children are out of control and in a lot of cases so are their parents.”

She also said the family alerted authorities when another teenaged girl sent her brother a text message calling him a “snitch”.

“We found out who she was and informed the authorities, but unlike my brother, she is still in school.”

Raymond Jr said the attack will “play on his mind for a long time to come” and that he does not want to go back to the school.

His father assured him that will not happen, even though “taxpayers pay a lot of money for the public school system.

“If we can’t use it to educate our children because of a few little demons, what’s the point? They’re up there attacking, stabbing, beating up on the ones who want an education.

“There’s something very wrong and it needs to be fixed, and we can’t afford to stand by and watch a few thugs tear children apart in school.

“Ms Richards told me she was very sorry this happened, but she also seemed more concerned about the school’s image. In six months my son’s wounds will have healed, but as for the emotional scars I can’t say.

“The mega-school concept was a big mistake for Bermuda from the outset,” said Mr Crofton. “Its very clear to me the system needs to be dismantled, as far as I’m concerned they should just bulldoze it and just get rid of it.

“My son doesn’t want to go back there, I don’t blame him and there’s no way we will send him back either.”

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