Pape and Amidou were reportedly mobbed by bullies in the playground of Intermediate School 318 on Friday. ‘These kids didn’t do anything wrong. They don’t deserve to get beaten,’ their dad, Ousmane Drame, said at a news conference in Harlem.
New York Daily News -Two middle school students who recently moved to the Bronx from West Africa were pummeled at their school after a pack of bullies taunted them with chants of “You’re Ebola!” their outraged father said Monday.
Ousmane Drame’s sons Pape, a 13-year-old eighth grader, and Amidou, an 11-year-old in sixth grade, were bashed by bullies at Intermediate School 318 in the Bronx on Friday, their dad said, flanked by a cadre of West African community leaders and elected officials.
“These kids didn’t do anything wrong. They don’t deserve to get beaten,” Drame said at a news conference at the Senegalese American Association in Harlem.
Amidou and Pape were born in America, but had been in Senegal learning French, said their dad, a 62-year-old cab driver. Since moving here about a month ago, the boys’ experience at the Tremont school has been infected with fear. “They go to gym, and they say, ‘You don’t touch the ball, you have Ebola, if you touch it we will all get Ebola,’ ” their father explained.
Tensions bubbled over Friday when Amidou was punched in the face during lunch. A fight broke out after Amidou sneezed and a student shouted “Ebola, you’re Ebola!” a police source said.
When Pape came over to defend his brother, he was beaten as well, the father said. The boys weren’t seriously hurt.
