Classmate says girl tortured and shackled with siblings was bullied at school

ONE of the 13 children found starving in her parents’ “house of horror” was the kid at school ‘nobody wanted to be caught talking to’, a former classmate has heartbreakingly revealed.

EVERY year at the school she briefly attended, there was a “designated cootie kid”.

That was the kid the others bullied and scoffed at. Picked on and stared at. Ridiculed, isolated marginalised, insulted and laughed at.

The one nobody wanted to get caught talking to, lest the bullies turn on them.

At Meadowcreek Elementary School, the oldest of the 13 California siblings who authorities said were imprisoned by their parents, David and Louise Turpin — was that kid.

She was “frail”, “smelly” and picked on as a grade school student in Texas, one of her classmates said in a heart-wrenching Facebook post.

If school was torture, it’s alleged home was no respite.

The now-29-year-old woman was rescued with her starving brothers and sisters from their home in Perris, California, on January 14.

David Turpin, 56, and Louise Turpin, 49, were each charged on Thursday with 12 counts of torture. Mr Turpin is also charged with forcefully performing a lewd act on a child under the age of 14. The Turpins have denied all charges.

The “frail” oldest of David and Louise Turpin’s children was bullied at school for how she smelled and dressed, a former classmate says. Picture: Last week the 13 siblings were found imprisoned and emaciated in their California home. Picture: Supplied

The 13 were malnourished, some chained to bedposts, living amid stench and squalor.

The siblings are safe now, but experts wonder if life can ever be normal for them in an unfamiliar world.

Certainly for the eldest girl, the most familiar things in life so far appear to have been bullying, isolation and humiliation — both at school, and at home.

Taha Muntajibuddin went to school from kindergarten through to third class with her in Fort Worth, Texas.

Now a paediatrics resident doctor, his heartbreaking post shared his “overwhelming sense of guilt and shame” over how she was treated after learning of her fate.

TEASED FOR ‘SMELLING LIKE POOP’

“Every grade level had a designated ‘cootie kid’ and she held the title for our year,” he wrote of the girl, who he said was “frail ... had pin-straight hair with bangs, and often wore the same purple outfit”.

He was horrified to learn that the girl teased in school for “smelling like poop” ... quite literally had to sit in her own waste because she was chained to her bed.

“It is nothing but sobering to know that the person who sat across from you at the lunch table went home to squalor and filth while you went home to a warm meal and a bedtime story,” Mr Muntajibuddin wrote.

“She was often made fun of by the other third graders because her clothes would sometimes look as though they had been dragged through mud, which she would also smell like on most days.”

He remembers the whole class “scoffing at her” once when a teacher removed a “scrunchy” hair tie. The tie had been made out of the discarded wrapper from a chocolate bar.

“After that year, [she] moved away, and she was forgotten about after we moved on to the next ‘cootie kid’,” Mr Muntajibuddin said.

Taha Muntajibuddin appeals to people to remember a resounding lesson; “Be nice”. Source: Facebook

After high school, when he looked for her via Facebook but found nothing, he assumed she didn’t do social media.

He imagined her “living her best life, showing up all of us ... she was going to be that person at the reunion looking completely flawless and making six figures while the rest of us tried to conceal our receding hair lines and minimum wage jobs”.

Discovering her real fate, Mr Muntajibuddin wrote, should teach a simple, resounding lesson: “be nice”. “Teach your children to be nice. If you see someone that’s isolated, befriend them. If you see someone that’s marginalised, befriend them,” he said.

The paediatrician ended his post with the wish that “despite being let down by her parents and by her peers alike” he would see her transform from “cootie girl” to “conquered the world”.

“Every grade level had a designated ‘cootie kid’ Taha Muntajibuddin wrote. Picture: Facebook

The post drew strong reactions. Some condemned Mr Muntajibuddin for his behaviour as a child. Others praised him for addressing it.

Mr Muntajibuddin said: “It was just meant to be an honest lesson: take it or leave it.”

“SLUNG AROUND LIKE A RAG DOLL”

Crowley Independent School District spokesman Anthony Kirchner confirmed Mr Muntajibuddin and the victim attended the same school.

He could not confirm when she enrolled or left school or whether any of her younger siblings attended as records only have to be kept for five years.

Another classmate, Stephanie Hernandez, told the AP the girl was quiet and always wore dirt-stained jeans that were too small. Ms Hernandez said she often was bullied.

“I remember someone kind of slung her around like a rag doll,” said Ms Hernandez, a registered nurse in Mansfield, Texas.

The Turpins homeschooled the children for more than a decade, it has been revealed.

David Turpin, 57, and Louise Turpin, 49, have pleaded not guilty to torture and other charges. The Riverside University Health System Foundation, which is collecting money for the siblings, so far has received donations totalling $120,000. From all over the world, people have been sending toys, blankets and clothing for them.

About 20 people, including nurses and psychologists, have offered to take the seven adult siblings and six minors and keep them together, said Mary Parks, a spokeswoman for the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services.

The siblings were all taken to hospitals, but Ms Parks said she could not discuss their conditions.

Escape: CCTV footage of the Turpin children being rescued from their home in Perris, California. Picture: Channel 9

Originally published as Classmate says girl tortured and shackled with siblings was bullied at school