School guard beats student, injures her spine

She lay helpless on her hospital bed at Ultima Trauma and Orthopaedic Centre in Nakasero, an upscale suburb of Kampala. Mercy Mbabazi, a Senior Two student at St Peter’s SS, Naalya told Daily Monitor that on March 22, after completing her night prep, a male colleague, Edgar, grabbed her bag and books and took off into the dark. She was preparing to go to her dormitory.

She then made her way to a water tank near the school’s staffroom and the boys’ wing in a bid to find someone she could send to collect her bag. Luckily, she met a Senior One student whom she sent. Instead, another classmate she identified as Elton showed up.
According to Mbabazi, she pleaded with Elton to ask Edgar to return her bag. Unfortunately Edgar was not in the dormitory at the time but Elton found Mbabazi’s bag which he brought.

Meanwhile, as she waited, a female security guard approached Mbabazi from the girls’ dormitory. Without asking Mbabazi what she was doing at the tank, she started beating her. According to Mbabazi, the askari was using a plastic handle of a squeezer to cane her on the back.

In the process, another guard Mbabazi identified as Charles appeared. He inquired what was going on and Mbabazi explained. He then offered to go and pick her bag. Before he returned, the female askari resumed the beating,; this time with more energy.

It is then that Mbabazi felt weak in the legs and fell down. The female askari fled, leaving her lying in pain at the water tank.
“She first slapped me on my ears and hit me twice on my back until the stick broke. She did not allow me to say anything but insisted I was doing bad things. It is my fellow students who came and picked me,” Mbabazi said.

Little did she know this was a beginning of a long journey. The next day, she kept confined on her bed as she could not lift her lower body. Resigned, she waited for the matron who came in later to do her daily dormitory rounds.

Mbabazi was then transferred to the sickbay where she stayed for two days without medication. When the situation worsened, the school authorities called her father, Mr Christopher Muhawe, on Good Friday.

“It was a shock because my daughter had called me previously and she had been well. But here was the head teacher calling to tell me that I should go to school because my daughter was very unwell,” Mr Muhawe shared with Daily Monitor.

Indifference
Mr Muhawe’s worry is that the school administration has since abandoned him as he seeks treatment for his daughter. He claims they no longer pick his calls and when he meets them, they are indifferent.

“I handed my daughter to the head teacher. How she gets an injury within the school premises needs to be explained. It is their business who did it. Even if you are to discipline a child, you don’t cause damage on the child’s body. She can’t sit or stand.

Urinating is difficult and painful and now they have put a catheter. She has not visited the toilet since the incident happened and I can’t afford the hospital bills. Now the school has kept quiet. They don’t pick my calls and I will not manage these bills I need assistance,” Muhawe, a self-employed driver, added.

But the school has denied allegations that they have abandoned him although they admit not to have communicated in the last few days.
“There is so much that has come up. We have asked our security guard what happened. She denies beating her with an object but acknowledges having slapped her. We have not abandoned the parent.

We have also been confused because some scans don’t show that the spine was injured. In such a case, we didn’t know what to do,” Mr John Katongole, the head teacher said in an interview.
Mbabazi is currently at Ultima Trauma under the specialists watch. The hospital’s head, Dr Shiraz Abdul, declined to talk to the press but asked that we take the explanation he gave to the patient’s father.

According to Muhawe, the doctor told him that the ‘muscles covering the spine and the nerves were affected’.

“During the beating, the doctor said, the layer around the spine and nerves got stuck on the spine. That is why the scans don’t indicate any fracture on the spinal cord. This has made it difficult to send signals to the lower body. At some point, her legs had started getting cold. She can’t walk, sit or stand.

However, there is some improvement with the treatment being given after the doctor identified what the problem was,” Mr Muhawe said. However, he is worried that the condition might affect his daughter’s future.

A police medical report, signed by Mr Michael Oliga, the examining officer, shows that the 15-year-old was assaulted by a security guard at school on March 22, sustaining severe spinal injury and the patient has been restricted on bed.

“Patient is incontinent (unable to control her bowels) and has paralysis and loss of sensation on both lower limbs,” the report reads.

Mr Ismail Mulindwa, ministry of Education commissioner in charge of private education, yesterday said corporal punishment is prohibited in schools and any suspect should be apprehended.

“In the event that the child was injured, that is criminal and parents should report to police and ministry. We have had cases where the victims’ parents want assurance that the school will meet the bills accrued in the course of treating their children. This parent is advised to come to the ministry so that we arrange for this. Schools should know that corporal punishment is not allowed,” Mr Mulindwa said.
Kira Police Station has since arrested the suspect.

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