Bullied Carterton boy fights back

A Carterton schoolboy is still battling his way to recovery after surviving relentless bullying and a schoolyard attempt to escape his tormentors by strangling himself.

The Wairarapa Times-Age broke the story of Carterton School pupil Raybane Hume-Kinzett, 11, who had in March tried to strangle himself with a skipping rope on the school playing fields.

His mother Sharlee Hume had told the Times-Age shocked classmates wrestled the rope from her son, who suffers from acute and chronic eczema and at 1.56m-tall weighs about 80kg.

Raybane, described by teachers as quiet, kind and caring, had in his own words become "angry and confused" after about half-a-dozen classmates surrounded him in the playground and bullied him about his eczema and size.

Ms Hume first learnt of the incident when a school staff member called to say her son had collapsed after his return to class. He was unresponsive and was taken by ambulance to Carterton Medical Centre. His story featured in a two-page spread in a women's magazine this week and Ms Hume said there were apparently numerous readers who had been moved by the challenges her son and family faced.

Raybane had befriended one of the six boys who harangued him and had become more settled and content, his mother said yesterday, over the time since the Times-Age story.

"He's been a lot happier. He's been going to rugby and attending Scouts and he's really looking forward to jamboree at the end of the year."

She said there had been two incidents in the past month during which Raybane had lashed out at other pupils.

He had struck a classmate in the face after the boy threw a ball at him, she said, and had headlocked a pair of boys who called him names while he was on crossing duty.

"He got a detention for punching the boy and because he knew he had done wrong, he was happy to do it. They're mates now.

"The second incident involved a member of the public who heard the kids calling him a loser and reported it to the school. But it's not a good thing he's lashing out. He needs to learn how to deal with it differently."

Ms Hume said she had met the Carterton School principal, a Resource Teacher Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) representative and two other teachers.

"At least he's not turning it on himself but he needs to build up a resilience to being bullied and people calling him names," Ms Hume said. "We're all trying to help Raybane build up his confidence and manage his reactions when he's bullied."