17 male students repeatedly abused a female student at a school in Ankara!

The abuse case in Ankara was sickening. The little girl’s unimaginable outcry exposed the scandal. A.B., the only child of a mother and father who are lecturers at a university, told her family that in 2023, when she was 13 and a 7th-grade student at a middle school in Çankaya, she had been subjected to harassment and abuse by male students.

Devastated by what she heard, the mother, P.B., went to a police station in October 2023 and filed a complaint against 17 male students attending the same school as her daughter. The mother and father immediately transferred their daughter’s enrollment to another school. Psychiatric treatment was also started for A.B., whose psychological state was shattered. The family also filed a criminal complaint against the school administration and teachers regarding the matter, which they said everyone at the school knew about.

ALL THE BOYS IN THE CLASS BULLIED HER

According to a report by Burcu Purtul Uçar from Hürriyet, female student A.B., whose statement was taken as part of the investigation launched, gave statements 3 times at the Child Monitoring Center. In her statements, A.B. said in summary, “I came here because of the bullying I experienced at my former school. Those who carried out this bullying were almost all the boys in the class”.

"THOSE WHO SAW DID NOT HELP"

A.B. stated that the people she mentioned touched her private parts and forcibly kissed her. A.B. said, “This touching happened everywhere in the school. It happened in the classroom, in the corridor, in the cafeteria and in the restroom. The people who saw these incidents did not help me,” and named one by one the classmates who saw the harassment she experienced but did not intervene.

"THEY FORCIBLY TOOK ME TO THE GIRLS’ RESTROOM"

A.B. said the male students whose names she gave forcibly took her to the restroom, touched her and kissed her, and stated that this touching lasted for seconds. A.B. also said that some of the boys who forcibly touched her made threats. In her statement, A.B. said, “Y., Y. and K. would grab me by the arm and forcibly take me to the girls’ restroom on the top floor of the school. This happened when I was in 7th grade.

I am now at another school. Y. and K. took me from the classroom and took me away by doing something, but I do not remember what they did. There were other students in the restroom as well, but after a while those people left.

"HE DID THIS AT LEAST 3 TIMES A DAY"

They forcibly put me inside the restroom. Y. did this to me at least 3 times a day. Y. and K. used violence against me and threatened me, forcing me to take off my clothes”, she said, describing how she was sexually abused first by Y. and then, on the same day, by K. A.B. stated that M. also forcibly took her to the restroom and that those who saw it did not prevent it, and in the continuation of her statement said 8 more students did the same thing to her.

SHE GAVE THE NAMES OF 17 STUDENTS

In her 3rd statement at the Child Monitoring Center, A.B. described the incidents in more detail and gave the names of a total of 17 male students, alleging that some of the male students harassed her by forcibly touching her and that others sexually abused her. In her statement given in the presence of a pedagogue, the victim A.B. described what she experienced using male and female anatomical images shown to her. At the end of her statement, A.B. said the following:

“I remember all of them forcing me. They threatened me by saying, ‘If you do not go out with me, we will kill you, we will kill your mother and father.’ I do not clearly remember who said it. My mathematics teacher S.K. may have seen this incident.”

THEY DENIED IT, PRISON SENTENCES SOUGHT

In the indictment prepared at the end of the investigation conducted by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, it was stated that the children accused of an offense took the victim to the school restroom multiple times at different times and abused her there, and that the children accused of an offense, Y., Y. and K., also threatened the victim by saying, “I will wilt your flower, I will send your photo, you cannot escape from me, I will tie you up”. At the end of the indictment, prison sentences of up to 7 years were sought for 17 children accused of an offense (SSÇ), whose ages were 13 at the time of the offense, on the charge of “aggravated sexual abuse of a child.” For K.Y., Y.A., Y.B., B.K. and K.Ç. (14), among these SSÇs, an additional prison sentence of 9 months to 2 years was also requested on the charge of “threat.”

HEARING TOMORROW

While up to 28 years in prison can be sought against an adult for the offense of sexual abuse of a child, because the male students were younger than 15, under the law a sentence of more than 7 years cannot be sought against them for this offense. Ankara 1st Juvenile High Criminal Court, in its preliminary proceedings record, decided to obtain from the school the addresses of the 8 female students whom the victim A.B. claimed were aware of the incidents, and ruled that the hearing would be held tomorrow at 10.00.