Her father Paul Brink is especially sad and bewildered, he tells by telephone from the hospital. “Why on earth would you do such a thing? What’s on your mind?”
Frédérique has to stay in hospital for a while because of her serious injuries. At least tonight. Tonight she will have a CT scan to check that there is no brain damage, because she does not remember everything.
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Frédérique was hanging out with some friends and a friend on a square in her residential area this afternoon. They had fetched and enjoyed some goodies when four or five boys between the ages of 11 and 15 harassed her.
“Are you a boy or girl?” one of them called out to her. Frédérique is a 14-year-old teenager and doesn’t know whether she wants to be a boy or a girl, says her father. “She doesn’t dress too wild. She comes across as gender neutral.”
Frédérique did not feel the need to answer. “It doesn’t matter, does it?” she said. The boy was not satisfied with that. He came to her very aggressively and stood right in front of her, her father describes the situation. “Again he shouted: ‘Are you a boy or a girl’? Frédérique replied: ‘I am who I am and you can be whoever you want’. Then he completely consumed her. Completely insane.”
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The girl collapsed on the rubber tiles of the playground where she hung out with her friends, and briefly passed out. When her friends rushed over, the boys fled. Frédérique called her father, who was swimming with his other children at the time. “I told her to call 911 and went straight to her.”
In shock
Once she got to his daughter, she was a bit in shock, he says. “She was on her knees. I kept her with me. She was shaking. But she was clear-headed.”
Initially they went to a hospital nearby, but because of her serious injuries they were taken to the AMC. There she is now with a broken nose, a fractured jaw, swelling in her face. “A tooth is loose, half of the front tooth is missing. It was a very violent attack.”
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Brink is not angry, nor is Frédérique. “I can be angry, but that is negative energy. It is of no use to us.” They will make a declaration. “We have not had time for that yet because we have been in hospital since this afternoon. It is now also first about Frédérique’s health.” The police say they are aware of the matter. “The detective is picking it up,” said a spokesperson.
Despite
Brink shared the event on LinkedIn and received immediate responses from, among others, the police, the mayor of Amstelveen and an alderman whom he can call ‘day and night’. “That makes me think that this isn’t normal.”
Frédérique is doing well under the circumstances. “She is well, is still full of adrenaline. She texts with friends. She is extremely strong.” Brink is proud of his daughter. “Because she wants to be who she is. Boy or girl, straight, gay or bisexual, it doesn’t matter to her or any of us.” And that is also the message that Frédérique, even after her severe abuse, has for everyone: “You can be who you want to be.”
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