School violence video shows strangling attempt

In
the video, the victim, a girl approximately 14 years of age, stands next to the
wall, her thin white scarf rolled around her neck and tied to the ledge above
her head. Other girls shout at her, forcing her to sit down so that the scarf
would begin strangling her. One of the bullies waves a shattered bottle near
victim’s face while she cries and prays to them to stop.

It
is clear from the video that the bullies took Hr 50 from their victim. They
teach her to tell her parents that she lost the money.

The
video is set in Mariupol, city of 464,000 people in Donetsk Oblast. It was
reported that the victim, an eight-grader, was bullied by these nine-grader
girls for about two years regularly. A friend of the victim shared with local
media that information, adding that girls would rob the victim, Valeriya,
stopping her on her way to grocery shop. The girl is said to leave Mariupol,
moving away with her parents.

It
was also said that victim comes from a hard up family and has a special needs
brother.

The
video was seen by mother of one of the bullies’ boyfriends www.0629.com.ua reports that the
woman immediately showed it to school principal, but was advice to delete it to
avoid the noise.

A
criminal prosecution was started against school authorities for ignoring a
crime. Also, Mariupol prosecutor’s office reported that bullies were found and
are under investigation. The potential punishment is five to 10 years in
prison, but if the girls are minors – 16 or under – they are likely to escape
harsh punishment. Under Ukrainian law, however, the responsibility for robbery
starts at the age of 14.

Although
police wouldn’t reveal the names of bullies, Internet users have already found
their alleged names and spread links to their social network pages. Their
accounts were already deleted, so angry posts flooded the pages of the bullies’
relatives and local groups. Within hours, a vkontakte page of the sister of one
of the alleged bullies was filled with threats, curses and photos of disemboweled
corpses.

Kyiv Post staff writer
Olga Rudenko can be reached at rudenko@kyivpost.com.