Dubai Police prevent bullied girl from committing suicide

Dubai: Dubai Police helped a 15-year-old student who tried to commit suicide because of bullying by her classmates in the school, an official said.

The Arab student called the hotline for children safety and protection in the Ministry of Interior saying she can’t stand bullying and that she would commit suicide.

The call was referred to Dubai Police command room and a team of experts was sent to the school to meet the girl and prevent her from committing suicide.

Social Expert Roudha Al Razouqi from Women and Children Rights protection at Dubai police said they went to the school to help the girl who was trying to strangle herself. “We stopped her and counselled her. She confessed that she attempted to committ suicide earlier because she was bullied by others. She is very sensitive and easily gets provoked and that led her to hurting herself,” Al Razouqi said.

The police found that she is diabetic and she was refusing to eat. Her parents were forcing her to eat food and her grandfather once slapped her for not eating but it only made her stubborn and refused to eat.

“The grandfather expressed his regret and claimed it happened only one time.”

Officers met her parents and urged them to take the girl to specialised doctors at Rashid Hospital.

Meanwhile, the children rights section received four cases in the first nine months of the year and all were solved.

“We received many calls from schools this year regarding children rights and we are working to solve any matter related to children rights,” Al Razouqi added.

Hotline

In 2016, the Ministry of Interior launched the ‘116111’ hotline to provide a safety net to protect children. The hotline is part of an integrated system designed to facilitate reporting of child abuse cases by phone or via the “Hemayati” smart phone application (which means ‘protect me’ in English). Reports may also be made via the MoI Child Protection Centre’s website.