I recently saw a video on Facebook of some Barataria schoolgirls beating another female student in a drain, while people looked on. No one came to the victim’s aid, instead, a female civilian actually jumped in to help in the beating! In case you saw the video (which has now been removed) here’s the story in the Trinidad Newsday.
NIYOKA FOLKES, 17, cried yesterday as she relived the beating she got at the hands of a schoolmate and her (the schoolmate) female relative while she (Folkes) lay helplessly in a drain near the Barataria North Secondary School on June 2.
The fight, which left Folkes dazed and bruised, was captured on a student’s cellular phone’s video camera and was widely circulated on the internet via several social websites including YouTube and Facebook.
In an interview yesterday, with her mother Karen Folkes and attorney Om Lalla who has been retained to seek the family’s interest, Folkes said a four-year friendship between herself and her attacker, who is also 17, ended with the attacker linking with a school gang.
Folkes, a Form Five student who lives at Chinapoo Village in Morvant displayed scars along her head, shoulder and legs.
Folkes said that nine months ago, she and the attacker were “good friends” for close to four years before a quarrel over petty issues such as “who hair looks better”, ended the friendship. Folkes said she became aware of a plan for her to be beaten on the day of their final exam.
Adding that CXC History was her last exam which had been scheduled for the morning of June 2, Folkes said she left the school compound shortly after 1.30 pm, in company with another female friend.
Walking along Third Avenue in Barataria, Folkes said, they were followed by her attacker and a group of 20 other students who kept “egging” on her (Folkes’ former friend) by shouting, “stab her, stab her.”
Unable to get a taxi to the Croisee, Folkes said she and her friend took a different route in an attempt to evade the group but were followed onto Jogie Road by the group who were, “jeering and cursing loudly.”
Read more of Anna-Lisa Paul’s story HERE
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