January 20, 2005
Barbarian assault
Something outrageous happened on 13/Jan. My friend was attacked in her room by her housemate, another girl who is from the same country.
This annoyed me so much as I have never known such barbaric people were actually around us !
The whole story follows I will try to be objective.
My friend A is not getting on very well with one of her 5 house mates the main reason is that her house mate R uses her spoons and plates without permission constantly. Last Wednesday Rita is caught using A’s plate again. A said to Rita, “NOT A NEXT TIME” and later Rita went into A’s room without knocking and swear at A, calling her bitch, limmer etc.
FACT: Both A and Rita are in a state college doing A-level, they stay in college accommodation. But Rita has a boy friend Howard who left his own house rented outside and have been living in Rita’s room for more than 2 months without paying rents and which is obviously not allowed. And Rita’s boy friend Howard often brings guests from outside to the shared kitchen making mess and noise. NO one had ever complained in order to keep a so called “good relation”.
Since A is verbally abused by Rita, she had decided to report to the warden. The warden didn’t give a dam to Rita but phone Howard not to come to the house. Then minutes after A had been back to her room, Rita knocked and asked for a “talk”. A opened the door and told Rita she didn’t want to. Then Rita rushed into A’s room without permission and pushed A against the basin. Then Rita twisted A’s hand so that she is under control of Rita and then beat her to the ground and kick her stomach and lower back. Then scratched A’s fingers. During this attack, Rita was swearing constantly.
Thereafter Rita said to A, “you are not qualified to complain about me.” “I can do anything to you” and then went downstairs to the kitchen and break all A’s plates. ( Rita later cleaned the mess )
I was in London when I had received a phone call from my friend A. so I took a train to the town where the college is in. then we go straight to warden’s office and reported the attack. The warden went to the house with us and examined the kitchen and A’s room. The she had a talk with R and her boy friend, she asked Rita if she had attacked A and broken her plates, Rita’s answer was “NO, I didn’t and no one saw it”. She said the case is now in the book and will be solved on Friday.
10 minutes after the warden had left. Howard had gathered 5 of his friends to the house and asked me to have a chat outside. The semi-circled me against the fence and Howard started to ask me not to mention the attack tomorrow and make this incident as small as possible. BUT they refused to admitted Rita had attacked A and broken A’s plates. I said I will only tell the truth. They know I do not live in the town so that they threatened me “A will have to stay here for 2 years, who know what will happen in future?” etc many times. Then 5 of his friends went into the house, left me and Howard alone. Howard then admitted what his girl friend had done and asked me to sort it out privately and I refused. He then threatened me the some thing another few times. When the conversation was about to an end, I heard a screaming from A in the house so I got in immediately and saw one of them was kicking the door of A’s room. I then accompanied her ( crying and shaking) to the warden’s office again, when we came back, they were gone.
THE NEXT DAY ( Friday)
The tutor C and the accommodation manager J both came and try to sort this problem out. Rita finally admitted what she had done but had a “slightly different story” which is not known by me. Both C and J are trying to convince us not to report it to the police.
The solution given by them is
-Rita will move out to another house just 20 yards away. (the wording comes from their mouth is R agree to move and can’t be forced)
-Rita should pay for the damaged plates.
-Rita should say sorry
The Tutor then told everybody to keep away from both of A and Rita at least recently, and warned any abuse or manner will be taken seriously by sending a group email.
A was unable to attend her AS examination due to anxiety and hands shaking, she went to see a doctor in the afternoon.
END: Some time had passed, the head of the college had offered such 'final' solutions: "As for Rita, the situation is a little more complicated. I was unaware that Howard was in the house on Monday. This was unacceptable. They are supposed to be moving this afternoon into M2!!! Rita has offered to provide a written apology in English to A. We wanted it in English so the headmaster and I could understand it. Rita was prepared to pay for the damage to the plates but they could not agree a price. Therefore the headmaster will send the bill home to her parents in China and they will pay it. I hope this is the end of the matter.' --- By Tutor C
This incedent is the most obvious and also the complicated one I have ever encountered during my life in the UK. But I think the whole thing has been developing healthly towards what I want it to be. Although not perfect. I have to say that I could really send some people back to their home county and spoil all their lives, but considering that we are all not easy... such ending would not be my first choice. BUT all I want to say is, IF SUCH THING HAPPENS AGAIN, I WILL NEVER LET IT GO!! I will NEVER let anyone to hurt my friends.
ADDITIONAL INCIDENT
AS I said,Howard called 5 of his friends and semi-circled me against the fence. ONE( say P) of them was particularly aggressive and even wanted to fight me but stopped by his fellows. I also reported this to the warden said I was intimidated.
When I was on the way with A to the doctor, I received a phone call from P, on the phone he swear at me. I can feel that he is afraid of being expelled because he said to if he is expelled he will hire somebody to beat me and will do something bad to my family.
Actually, I know those guy (friends of Howaed) knew little about the attack at the time they semi-circled me, they were just trying to help their ‘friend’ That was very stupid and this one P is the most hotheaded one among them. He wanted to be COOL and to stand out, being aggressive but I didn’t know he was a true coward until I had received his intimidating phone call. AND the call is made long long enough by himself for me to record parts of it. This matter was certainly reported to C the tutor.
END:
I have received another phone call from P, but this one is nice.P has given his full apologies to me directly and sincerely to me and he also met A personally and offered his sincere apologies (not like Rita or Howard). He also promises to me that he will never hurt or threaten anyone.This phone call has convinced me that Paul is not dangerous to me or Rene and he was just hotheaded and not well-informed of the incident by Howard.Therefore I accept Paul's apologies and wish not to take it further
against him. And we could possibly be friend. After all, damning someone down to hell is not what I am looking for.
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Yes, some people could face very severe punishment, but they did not. This does not necessarily mean that they will be ok. REMEMBER EVERYTHING IS ON FILE!!
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I did consider to report it to the police, so I asked some british, here are some suggestions from them: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/t85152.html
An OK ending I would say so far.
Posted by CY at January 20, 2005 02:05 AM | TrackBack
