BAGHDAD, Iraq - Shaima Jameel, 11, died on December 19 in Baghdad, hours after being hospitalized. Her family claims that one of her teachers struck her head with a wooden stick that day.
The fifth grader was in constant pain when she returned from school.
The medical report indicated severe trauma to the left side of Shaima's brain, causing her hemorrhage.
"When the girl returned from school, she was tired. She was not in good health, and we said that she might be tired from school. We did not know that she had been beaten. In our heads she was tired, she had just come back from school. She slept for an hour and then she sat. When she sat, she talked with her father, who told her to go to her mother, and her situation worsened. After procedures in the hospital, she passed away," Aala Jabar, her uncle, told Rudaw on Wednesday.
Her father said she had exam that day and has scored a high mark.
"Even that day, she came back from the exam she had scored 92 [out of 100]. She was a little happy - happy and tired at the same time. She slept beside me for an hour and a quarter and said that her head hurt. When she said that, her situation deteriorated. When I saw her like that I told my brother and neighbors. They took her to al-Kindi hospital," Jameel Jabar said.
Shaima's family are residents of a neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. The incident allegedly took place at the al-Samah elementary school for girls.
The Iraqi education ministry has formed a committee to investigate the incident.
