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Mocked for being fat, then stabbed to death
Linda Zimase was known as Phumba because his classmates thought it was funny that he was fat like the cartoon warthog.
The 16-year-old boy was teased incessantly, had no friends and came home upset almost every day.
He preferred to walk away from fights and never stood up for himself, his sister Precious said on Thursday.
This week Linda died - stabbed to death in the Roodepark High School on the West Rand. It's alleged he was bullied by his attacker.
The two boys were in their woodworking class on Tuesday when the teasing started.
A classmate was teasing Linda. Linda asked him to stop, but he continued, Precious said. The family was told this by a teacher, she said.
Linda stood up and walked out of class. What happened next was not clear on Thursday.
"He was stabbed in the temple and the scissors crushed his brain until the end of the scissors came out the front of his head," said Precious, who could not contain her anger.
"I saw him on Monday, he normally walks me to the bus stop when I go home, but this time he didn't. I knew it was the strike on Wednesday, so I said 'don't worry I will see you on Wednesday'.
"I didn't know it would be the last time I would see him."
This was not the first time Linda was attacked at school.
Last year, his guardian Diana Zimase said, two boys called out to Linda while at school.
When he didn't respond, they poked his head with a stick and when he turned around, they punched him in the face.
The school called her, asking her to do something because Linda was being continually teased so she laid a charge of assault at the Roodepoort police station.
She thought the teasing would stop because the attacker was forced to leave the school.
Precious said she thought the school had resolved the problem.
"Linda was fat and they called him 'fattie'," she said.
"He would just keep quiet and they took advantage because he didn't stand up for himself. We were so close he would tell me everything."
Precious doesn't hold any hope of justice being done.
"At the end of the day, the person who did it will be let out. He killed a person, but they don't care. Already he was released from jail on Thursday."
Captain Siphiwe Ndlovu said a 16-year-old boy would be charged with murder.
He appeared in the Roodepoort magistrate's court on Wednesday and was released in the care of his parents.
Posted by: Puchiko
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Posted in: News on August 11, 2008 @ 12:00 AM
Tags: School
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There's a lot of causes for this. Sure, if Linda had been able to leave school stuff would have probably turned out a lot better for him. But I think the problem here is much deeper: I think it's about how much the bullies can get away with before the administration even begins to care, I think it's about bullies not being stopped and held responsible-being used to achieving their goal through emotional and physical assault.
There's no need to write it, the cause is human stupidity on the part of the bullies, administration, teachers, and perhaps even the family a bit (I think the parents should have pulled the kid out, at least let him change schools if not drop out altogether).
But is there really any point in finding the cause? A human life is lost, another tragedy occurred. And the saddest part is that it isn't the last death that could have been prevented incredibly easily.
Shit... odds are, nothing's gonna happen to the dude who did it.
Then again, jail doesn't exactly turn idiots into better people, either. What they need is serious counseling... which is another thing they're very unlikely to get in this country (or anywhere, for that matter).
A boy named Linda? Well, maybe it's a foreign male name like Kelly or something. There was that baseball player named Kelly something. Anyway, I'm sure it didn't help him any.
This hits home with me because I was the same way, not fighting back, too good to resort to violence, almost dying because of it, in a school setting no less.
It should be criminal to teach somebody that resorting to violence is universally wrong. It can be used for good. It can save lives. It's a shame this kid's life had to end like this, without a fight, never fighting...
Those fucking bullies need to be executed...excrutiatingly slowly, so after death they'll go to the depths of Hell where they belong!
thats....so sad...all that...because he was overweight...THEY SHOULD ALL BE ASHAMED!!! the people who made fun of him...they dont deserve friends either!! im kinda the same way...(exept im not overweight) i dont like to fight...it just makes more trouble in the long run...but i know how to fight..i choose not to...that kid......he didnt do anything wrong...he didnt deserve this!! the MURDURER did do something HORRIBLY wrong! he just went to court then they all just moved on like nothing happened...GIVE HIM ****ING LIFE SENTENCE!!!!!! THEN EXECUTE HIM WHEN HES 90!! COME ON PEOPLE!!! OPEN YOUR ****ING EYES!!!!!!!!!!!!!
well even if he had stood up for himself and fought back the teachers would yell at him for fighting even if he had almost been stabbed to death cuz all teachers care about are the "perfect little angels who would never harm a living soul" even when they are beating the crap out of someone right in front of the teacher.This is one of the many ways school sucks.