Student killed after attack at school on the coast of SP wanted to defend friends from bullying, says mother

Michele Teixeira, mother of the teenager Carlos Teixeira, aged 13, who died a week after two students jumped on his back at a state school in Praia Grande, on the coast of São Paulo, states that his son did not want to leave the Julio Pardo Couto State School, in Big beachon the coast of São Paulo, because he wanted to protect his younger friends from bullying.

She says that her son suffered a physical attack at school in March, almost a month before the attack. At the time, the family already wanted to remove him from the unit.

“He said: ‘Mom, I don’t want to go out because I’m the biggest in my class’. He said that because his friends were smaller, little ones, and he was big for his age. He said he wanted to defend his friends. He said: ‘Mom, I want to get strong”, Michele Teixeira told Fantastic this Sunday, 28th.

The family says the death was due to aggression. A Civil police opened an investigation to investigate the case, which is also investigated by the State Department of Education.

The victim had turned 13 on April 7, two days before the attacks. According to the teenager’s father, the student said that on the 9th, he was called to school and informed by an employee that his son had fallen down the stairs.

At home, the son began to cry in pain and denied the version of the fall, saying that he had been attacked by two colleagues. He said he was dragged into the bathroom, where he was knocked down by one of them. The two jumped onto his back.

A video released by the family and obtained by Estadão shows the father questioning his son about what happened at school on April 19th. He asks about the attack and wants to know the name of the attacker. “Did he jump on you?” he asks. “Yeah,” the teenager replies. “He hurt you and he’s short of breath,” the father continues. “I am, when I breathe my back hurts”, adds the boy, crying. “And you weren’t even playing with them?”, insists the father. “No,” says the victim.

On Monday, the family decided to take the boy to the Santos Central UPA, where he was admitted and needed to be intubated. The following day, he was transferred in serious condition to Santa Casa de Santos, where he had three cardiorespiratory arrests and died.

The student’s family lawyer, Amanda Mesquita, said that the father took his son to the Emergency Care Unit (UPA) in Praia Grande three times and on each occasion he was treated and released, but the symptoms worsened.

On the Globo program, the city hall informed that it had opened an “administrative process to investigate the procedures adopted in the services. And if any irregularity is found, the appropriate measures will be taken.”

The students suspected of attacking Carlinhos are part of a group that has already attacked another student in the bathroom of the same school, according to the mother of another student heard on the program. She said she reported the attacks to educators, who did not take action. The boy says that he doesn’t want to leave the house anymore and that he is terrified about what happened.

Michele Teixeira holds the school responsible for her son’s death. “An adult sees children being beaten, not just my son, and closes their eyes, pretending nothing happened,” he said.

The manager of the Coexistence Improvement and School Protection Program from the Department of Education of the State of São PauloThomás Resende, says that the ministry established a commission to investigate the facts and possible responsibilities.

“We are at the beginning of the work, but the current reality is that no evidence, neither through video monitoring nor through interviews, provides information that anything happened within the school environment on April 9.”

Regarding the aggression that occurred in March, Seduc-SP informed the Estadão that, at the time, upon becoming aware of the case, the school management contacted the Guardianship Council and the student’s guardians.

Investigators already have the names of most of the students who participated in the attacks against Carlinhos. The investigation determines whether there was a homicide with possible intent, when the person assumes the risk of killing. The police are awaiting the results of the forensic examination to determine the cause of death.

As the investigation involves minors, the identities of the students allegedly involved in the aggression were not revealed, which prevents the report from having access to their defense.