Education ministry expels students involved in New Cairo school bullying assault

Shahd Hashem , Tuesday 21 Jan 2025

Minister of Education Mohamed Abdel-Latif expelled Sunday students involved in a bullying incident at an international school in New Cairo and placed it under the ministry’s financial and administrative supervision.

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File photo: school students sitting an exam. Photo: Al-Ahram

 

Minister Abdel-Latif announced, nearly one month after the incident, that students involved will be barred from school re-enrollment until next year.

A video clip of the assault ended up on social media last week, showing three high school girls assaulting a younger sixth-grader student in the schoolyard of Capital International School, with onlookers watching and filming the incident.

The education minister also ordered students who filmed and shared the assault clip on social media to be suspended for two weeks.

The ministry's statement did not reveal the exact number of students expelled or suspended. However, the clip showed three students brawling with the young girl and dozens of others watched and filmed the incident.

The assault left the younger student with a fractured nasal bone and multiple head bruises, according to her father, who detailed her injuries in a widely shared video on social media.

The school has not yet issued any statements regarding the student's current condition.

In a phone interview with Al-Nahar TV, the father of the assaulted student said the fight started over a minor issue, asserting that the girls did not even know each other.

Ministry response
 

In response to the incident, the education ministry dispatched a committee to investigate the incident on Sunday. The statement said the school would be under the ministry’s financial and administrative supervision.

The education minister stressed the ministry's strict and uncompromising approach to handling such incidents to ensure a safe, educational environment that protects the rights of all students and fosters a culture of respect and positive values.

School response
 

Meanwhile, in a separate statement on Sunday, the school stated that the incident had occurred after school hours, noting that the three involved students were permanently expelled, and their cases were referred to the School Protection Committee for necessary legal actions.

Additionally, disciplinary measures outlined in the Student Conduct Code have been applied to those who recorded the incident and interacted negatively with it.

In response to the incident, the school is intensifying comprehensive awareness programmes for all students about similar violent behaviours and their consequences.

In response to claims that the school failed to intervene during the fight, the school stated that it intervened to stop the fight, provided first aid to the assaulted student, listened to her account, informed her guardian, and reviewed security camera footage as part of its investigation.

Perspectives twist
   

The assault video that went viral across social media platforms unveiled just one side of the story. 

"Nobody knows what happened from the beginning, so why are you talking?” said the main suspect among the three accused girls in a video circulating on social media, where she defends herself and presents an alternate account of events.

She added, “She [the initial victim] was the one who started with the insults, and it didn’t stop there — she harassed my sister.” She emphasized that the recorded incident was merely a “reaction” to an earlier, unreported “action.”

“I sustained a concussion and bruises all over my body,” she continued, “and I have a medical report from a government hospital, stamped by the dean, along with witnesses to corroborate everything.”

While on this note, during her video, the girl also doubted the medical report of the younger student. In response to the video, the sixth-grader’s mother dismissed all the claims made by the main suspect during TV remarks with Tamer Amin on Al-Nahar.

“It’s all lies, and it’s clear from the cameras — she’s been trying to lie from day one,” the mother stated. Regarding the allegation that her daughter harassed the other girl’s sister, she firmly denied it, saying, “That never happened.”

The mother further claimed that the girl responsible for this incident is "not a first-time offender, she did the same thing to another classmate last year.”

Addressing the issue of reconciliation and the suspect’s claim in her video that the younger student’s father had approached her to reconcile, the mother firmly stated on TV, “There is no intention to reconcile, and we will proceed with legal actions.”

Public Prosecution investigates
 

Detectives arrested the three girls for assaulting the younger student in the execution of an arrest warrant issued by the prosecution. 

Additionally, the prosecution had also previously heard the victim’s testimony about the assault. Arriving in a wheelchair, accompanied by her father, the sixth-grader accused the three high school students of bullying and assaulting her at school.

The New Cairo Prosecution has completed hearing the testimony of the victim's family regarding the assault. 

In addition, the prosecution also reviewed the medical report of the victim, which confirmed a nasal bone fracture.

The medical report stated that the victim sustained a fractured nasal bone, which required realignment and the application of an external splint. The report also recommended a two-week recovery period. 

From their standpoint, the three girls submitted video clips and photos alleging that the younger student had initiated the fight, which resulted in assault charges being filed against her during the investigation.

Accordingly, investigations revealed that the victim has also been accused of assault by the girls who allegedly attacked her.

Meanwhile, on Monday, the New Cairo Prosecution decided to release the three girls on bail pending further investigation.

Raising public awareness
 

As per (UN Children’s Fund) UNICEF statistics in 2023, nearly 250 million children worldwide experience bullying annually.

In 2018, the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and UNICEF, launched Egypt’s first national anti-bullying campaign to protect children from abuse.

Two years later, Egypt criminalized bullying, introducing penalties of at least six months in prison and/or fines ranging from EGP 10,000 to 30,000.

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