She was a young and sweet girl with a whole life in front of her, but for 14-year-old Nina from Helmond the harassment in her high school were enough. In April of this year she left life. Her death released many reactions at home and abroad. Many people sympathized with Nina and her family, but there was also a lot of anger. A witch hunt for the bullies started on social media. Nina’s father, Slowek, tells Omroep Brabant six months after her death how he experienced that time and how great the lack of his daughter is. “We still cry every day for her death,” he says.
A sweet, caring and quiet girl with blond curls and beautiful smile. 14-year-old Nina seemed a carefree teenager, just like other peers. “It always went well with Nina. She used her smile as a mask,” says her father.
When sleeping and his wife Monica asked how she was doing, she always said ‘good’. Nina and her mother drove on vacation in Poland, where her parents come from, like horse. “Horse riding she did the sweetest,” says Slawek.
But behind the smiling, carefree girl, a world was hiding her parents. “According to Nina, it was always good at school.” Until the moment her mother received a phone call with the message that Nina was not at school.
“Monica went home and asked Nina why she didn’t go to school. For the first time she told her she was being bullied and started crying,” her father says. Nina and her mother were talking about the harassment, but then Nina started again about the vacation that was still planned and promised to make Spaghetti for the family the next day.
The parents had no idea that their world would look completely different later that day. “Two hours later, her brother called to say that Nina had died,” Slicken looks back. Nina had stepped out of life.
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“Why? Why did she choose this road”, her parents wonder every day since that one day in April. The police in the Netherlands decided not to investigate her death because it was suicide.
The parents had Nina’s phone examined in Poland and also the Dagbooks of Nina, which they found later, give a picture of the bullying. “While I was crying, they were laughing at me. All the love I still had died”, you can read in Nina’s diary.
Slows also spoke with a friend of Nina. “She had told her that a boy was walking behind her during the break and said,” Nina Cancer. ” Nina’s school indicated that she had one report about bullying behavior, after which Nina was supervised.
SLAWEK finds it indigestible that the bullies are not punished harder for their deed. “The police were not allowed to talk to the children because this would cause stress to the children,” he says. According to him, bullying is being tackled very differently in Poland.
“Bullying is punishable there. Children don’t have to go to prison, but they do learn about what bullying does to someone and talk to psychologists and at school,” says Slawek. He hopes that bullying in the Netherlands will also become punishable once and that schools are better supervising.
“Teachers have to walk around during the break.”
“Teachers should not sit in the canteen’s break and drink coffee and sit on their phone, but walk around and listen to what the children say to each other.” The father also made a song in which words and melody tell exactly what he and his family feel.
“Seven shadows that declared the war in the head of a girl: a carefree girl who was only 14 years old,” the text sounds. Slowek hopes that bullies realize what they do to someone by the number.
“We don’t get Nina back. My wife cries around her every day. I sometimes cry in the car when I hear music she danced on in the living room, but on which she can never dance again,” says the father.
In the week against bullying, he shares his story at Omroep Brabant to make people aware of the consequences of bullying. “Bullying needs to know what they do to someone and that it can bring about such a tragedy,” he concludes.
Response School
The school that Nina was on, the Delta VMBO in Helmond, says that out of respect for the relatives they do not want to make public announcements about the death of Nina.
The director, Maarten Selten, says that the theme of bullying receives a lot of attention at the school. “We think it is very important to guarantee a safe and respectful learning environment, in which everyone feels heard and supported. We do this not only during the national week against bullying, but throughout the school year,” he says.