British Schoolgirl 'Stabbed For Love Of AC/DC'~
Telegraph.co.uk reports that a British teenager who was stabbed in the eye during her school lunch break said a "gang mentality" singled out students for their music and fashion tastes.
The 15-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, narrowly escaped losing her sight in the attack last November.
She had been the victim of a string of attacks, threats and had even received prank calls at home because she is what is known as "a metaler", Guildford Crown Court heard today.
But she said: "I mean, it's this gang mentality that my generation seems to insist upon and I want to stop it."
Watching the girl give evidence via video link, the jury heard how name-calling in the school canteen had escalated into an attack on the school playing fields.
The victim explained in a police interview shown to the court how she had been "forced into a category" on her first day at the school.
"Somebody asked me on the first day what kind of music I listened to, so I said AC/DC."
She said that, as a result of this, she was told she was a "metaler" and found herself being shunned by other classmates.
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I want to stop school gang culture, says stabbed girl
By Stewart Payne
(Filed: 31/08/2006)
A schoolgirl, who was stabbed in the eye with a pair of scissors during her lunch break, yesterday described the "gang mentality" based on fashion and music tastes that led to her attack.
The 15-year-old had been taunted by three girl pupils in her year as she queued in the school canteen.
They threatened to cut off her long hair and, a short while later, returned with a pair of scissors.
After more name-calling one of the three, aged 14, stabbed the girl several times including in the eye, a jury at Guildford Crown Court, Surrey, was told.
The victim was said to be fortunate not to suffer permanent loss of sight.
She gave evidence yesterday by video-link during which she said she was scared to return to school.
"It's this gang mentality that my generation seems to insist upon and I want to stop it," she said.
She had been labelled a "metaler" – a reference to heavy metal music – by her alleged assailant and her friends. She had also been singled out because she dressed in "goth" style.
She said any pupils who didn't like chart, pop, rap or hip-hop music were labelled as metalers and it was a category she was pushed into and had not been able to shed.
"I look like any other girl but obviously something stands out. Maybe I've got a big flashing sign that's invisible to me saying 'metaler — don't associate with'."
She said she was called "Neo" from the character in the film The Matrix because she sometimes wore a long black coat which, she said, was shredded by a pair of scissors in one incident. She said that in the alleged attack one of her tormentors came at her with the blade in her hand "like in the movie Psycho".
She felt the blade enter her eyelid, an injury that narrowly missed puncturing her eyeball. As she fell to the ground she felt further blows to her head and her back.
She was left with a number of gashes that required stitches and still suffers from blurred vision.
"I've never been in a scenario where I felt so intimidated," the girl said, but added that school etiquette meant that she could not report the girls to a teacher when they first taunted her.
One faces a charge of wounding with intent and a lesser, alternative charge of wounding. Her two co-defendants, now 15, face charges of perverting the course of justice after they allegedly disposed of the scissors following the attack. All three deny the charges.
The victim explained in a recorded police interview shown to the court how she had been "forced into a category" as soon as she arrived at the school. "Somebody asked me on the first day what kind of music I listened to, so I said AC/DC."
She said that, as a result of this, she was told she was a "metaler" and found herself shunned by classmates.
"I'd never heard of these categories," she said. "It seemed ridiculous. I realised I was being shut out, so I made friends with people who would accept me who were also metalers. But I just wanted to be friends with everybody."
She said she had been knocked out in an art class when a girl hit her with a studded bag but the art teacher had done "absolutely nothing about it".
On one occasion she was chased through a town centre by a gang of 13 girls and she said that it took six security guards to wrench two of her attackers off.
Police were involved when a pupil began making calls to her home, breathing heavily and making threats.
Referring to the alleged scissors attack, she said that after the canteen queue taunts the three classmates returned and one said: "Have you got anything to say to me now?" The girl responded: "Other than the fact that I think you are all pathetic whores and I want you to leave me alone, no, I don't."
She denied suggestions by Barry Kogan, the barrister acting for the girl charged with wounding, that she had begun the fight by racially abusing his client and that the scissors stabbing was accidental.
The trial continues.
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