A 51-year-old woman and her 27-year-old daughter have broken their silence on a viral video in which they fight with several schoolgirls in the city of Castries. (SEE VIDEO BELOW STORY)
The women, who are from Castries but did not want their names disclosed, told St. Lucia News Online that the incident occurred on Friday, November 8, 2019, at the Domino’s Pizza branch at the William Peter Boulevard.
At around 3 p.m., the mother said she and her daughter were sitting inside the fast-food outlet, waiting on an order, when she noticed something disturbing happening among a group of Ciceron Secondary School students, just outside the entrance of the business.
The mother, who was in a greenish dress, said she noticed a Form One female student being bullied by four other Form-Four female students.
She further told our newsroom that it appeared as if the older students were demanding something from the younger student, and because she came up empty-handed, one of the girls slapped the first former in the face and the other slapped her in the back of the head.
The first-former ran inside the pizza joint to escape her attackers. The 51-year-old woman further told St. Lucia News Online that it was at this point that she intervened because she is very much against bullying.
She said she argued with the older ones that what they did was not right and she encouraged the first-former to “hit them back”.
She said by the time she finished that sentence a “fat” female student attacked her physically. The mother said she responded by biting and punching the schoolgirl in self-defense.
Her 27-year-old daughter, who was dressed in a multi-coloured striped tights and white top, said she got up and defended her mother while trying to separate the fight. However, the situation escalated when the other schoolgirls got involved, ganging up on the mother and daughter.
Screenshots of the fight.
The mother admitted that her daughter threw a chair at one of the schoolgirls, but in self-defense. However, this resulted in the girls ganging up on her daughter more, holding her down by the hair.
The mother said she was about to pull the girls off her daughter when a male Domino’s employee cautioned her to avoid escalating the situation. By that time, the girls released her daughter’s hair and ran outside, and away from the business establishment.
Four police officers arrived on the scene soon after to investigate the matter, according to the women.
It was during this time, the officers and the women were able to discover the root of the bullying.
According to them, the first-former disclosed that every day the four older girls, at least one of them, would ask her for money, and if she does not have any money, she would be attacked and beaten.
“When it comes to bullying I will stop it…. my daughter is the same,” said the mother in the fight video, adding that the first-former looks like someone from a poor household based on how she was attired.
“This bullying thing in Saint Lucia, it needs to stop,” she said, adding that she has intervened in similar situations before, to aid victims of bullying.
She told St. Lucia News Online that the first-former told her she did not have to defend her but thanked her, hugged her and cried. She said the young girl is fearful of taking the matter further in fear of being attacked again.
As such, the women said the police promised to visit the school on Monday to investigate and address the issue. The mother and daughter said they too plan to visit the school Monday as well as to give their side of the story.
The mother said next time if she tries to stop a bully and she is attacked, she “swears on her son’s grave” that it will be taken further. She reiterated that bullying is too prevalent in Saint Lucia and it needs to stop.
The daughter told our newsroom that she and her mother did not sustain any injuries, but they are more concerned about the first-former.
The daughter also pointed out that people have been saying things on social media that they know nothing about.
She said she and her mother would never just go about fighting and beating children for no reason — they were simply defending a poor child when they were attacked and they responded in self-defense.
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