Back in October, the Egyptian House of Representatives passed new amendments toughening penalties against the bullying of the differently-abled; today, the maximum sentence is five years in prison in addition to a fine. In Egypt, there are over 10 million differently-abled people, among which 108,000 are students. So ensuring that they feel safe and protected is a must. Recently, however, it doesn’t seem like people realize the real-life repercussions of these measures.
in the past few days, a new scandal rocked social media and stirred public opinion, wherein a 13- year-old student, who suffers from mental disabilities and visual impairment was bullied in class, and now, the teacher is undergoing trial and the school is being sued.
Ezz El-Din Sherif
The young boy suffers from a mental disability and a congenital eye defect. Ezz El-din goes to a school in Shubra, Cairo. It’s not a school for kids with special needs, so he receives special treatment when it comes to school tests.
The 13-year-old went through a horrific experience at school. During class, he asked his computer teacher to sit in the front row as he couldn’t see well. She answered him asking, “so you’re stupid and blind?” The whole class laughed at him, and that’s when he started crying. The teacher then sent him to the school headmistress’ office complaining, “I can’t keep up with the normal kids, how am I gonna keep up with retards?”
The headmistress, to make matters worse, locked him up in her office for an hour, then had him wash cups as a punishment. Mistakenly, he broke a cup, so she physically abused him, beating him on the chest. He cried hysterically and urinated himself.
Ezz El-Din asked for the phone to call his parents but the headmistress refused. When he didn’t go home on time, his mother went looking for him at school. She found him locked up in the headmistress’ office. Angry at the sight of her humiliated son, the mother started yelling.
Later on, the father got included and reasonably he sued the teacher and the headmistress. The school’s response is a report against Ezz El-Din’s mother for insulting and slandering the school employees. On top of that, the teacher denied the accusations saying that the student was late to class, so she just scolded him. Then, he threatened to call his parents, so she sent him to the headmistress’ office.
This is far from the truth. The truth had horrible repercussions; Ezz El-Din is now receiving psychiatric treatment at the Abbasiya Hospital. His anxiety and fear reached high levels where he’s constantly urinating involuntarily, and crying non-stop.
The parents see how the cruel treatment and inhumanity affected their son, so they’re not giving up on the case. Currently, there’s a trial now for the teacher, while the headmistress was not charged with anything. The punishment might be imprisonment for one year and a fine of 10,000 Egyptian pounds.
This marks a positive step towards fighting bullying in Egypt. Shouldn’t these rules encompass everyone else? We all are subject to bullying at any age. All that’s being asked of us is to treat each other with kindness and respect.