Crying Kid

Just yesterday, a video of a child, who does not look a day over six, crying in class went viral on all social media platforms. As usual, people immediately started creating memes about it and sharing it thinking it’s funny.

The video was shot anonymously inside the classroom where the incident happened. The kid was crying from fatigue and saying “Let me sleep for only 15 minutes and I promise I’ll do anything you want after!”, while looking extremely tired and pitiful.

Only a few people came out on social media and voiced how this is not funny by any means and how the whole incident should be listed as child abuse, which is just heartbreaking.

According to a Facebook post, posted shortly after the video went viral, the actual story of this kid, named Mohamed Saleh, came out. It turned out to be that the poor child has been bedridden for three months straight due to a double leg fracture. Meaning that it’s totally and completely normal, if not necessary, that the kid feels tired, idle and sleepy most of the time; especially that this is allegedly his first year in school, considering he is also definitely still in the recovery period!

Crying kid

Perhaps the most significant thing about this whole incident, is that in the video, we see an old woman, supposedly the teacher,  whom the kid referred to as “Haga“, stepping towards the kid with what looked like a wooden stick in her hand. Needless to say, it seemed that she was about to hit him until she made eye contact with the camera that was for some odd reason rolling, and then she immediately put the stick down.

In a related context, some sources confirmed that the video was immediately sent to the Minister of Education and that the  ministry is currently acting upon it.

According to Ahmed Khairy, the ministry spokesperson, they are currently trying to track the video in order to know who shot it, as this is considered illegal in classrooms. They are also investigating the incident itself and everyone involved, especially the teachers who definitely caused the kid psychological harm, and looked like they were about to cause him physical harm too. So far the ministry has been able to locate the kid’s school in Shobra and already contacted his parents.

On the other hand, Mohamed Saleh’s father has spoken out about the incident and is promising he will not let it go unpunished, and that he will be taking legal action towards everyone involved. He also added that his son does not want to go to school anymore, and it was only his first day.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that the National Council of Childhood and Motherhood strongly condemned the incident, stressing that it completely violates the Child Law. Shooting the video is also considered a case of rights violation and sharing it represents some sort of cyberbullying.

This is not funny by any means, if anything this is just heartbreaking and simply not okay. Whatever happened to humanity? Whether it’s the memes, the teacher who was about to smack the kid, or whomever shot the video without taking any serious action; all of this should not be taken lightly. 

Sources: Al Masry Al Youm
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