About a week ago I was watching one of my favourite shows, Dr Phil. In his show, Dr Phil had a lovely young girl, 16 years of age, and her mother, as well as the parents of the bully. Kattie (the 16 year old girl) was bullied by a young male by the name of Nick, who was not present at the time because he was embarrassed and didn’t want his face published by the media. The young lady was constantly crying when describing how she was bullied by Nick and his accomplices. Kattie had to drop out of school fearing for her life seeing that Nick and his team threatened to kill her.
I didn’t realise that bullying was such a serious issue, that it was really there in our societies, I thought it took place in the movies, and it was exaggerated by directors. But I was wrong, bullying really is there, and it could probably be the main reason why the youngsters of today drop out of schools. I was watching Noeleen a year ago, and she was also discussing bullying, she had victims of bullying and they were explaining how they had to drop out of school to get home schooled, how they kept on changing schools every year and how the issue of bullying was not taken seriously by the schools.
So today I am here to share my story.
After reading a lot on bullying stories, I reminisced on what I went through during my primary school years, and it is now I realise that I was being bullied all along. I never deemed this as bullying because as a child I went through a lot of things, like coming home to a drunken grandmother who would shout at me for nothing, not living with my mom, and seeing my mom like eight times a year, so it didn’t really matter what made me happy or sad.
So this “friend” of mine, who was three years older than me,we were in the same grade, she was the oldest and tallest girl in class. She formed a group of ‘friends’ which I was part of, of course, there were like eight of us in that group, and she was in-charge of the group, seeing that she was older and taller than the rest of us, and we were all scared of her. Our lunch boxes we had to give them to her so she can decide who gets how much of the food and who doesn’t get anything even if they contributed. Lunch money she decided what was to be bought and the remaining change went to her sister so they could both spend it after school.
I was the most hated person in the group because I did not always have money or lunch box, and sometimes when I had contributed, I wouldn’t get my fair share. I would get home hungry only to realise that there was no food at home, and besides, we only ate once back then, supper.
So when the “boss” of the group decided to give me a fair share of my food, I learned to realise that there would either be something wrong with it, They would send me to the shop first, giving them enough time to spit on my food, yeah I would indulge in their spit without knowing, then after I’ve finished my food they would all have a great laugh then tell me what they did to it. There were different techniques everyday, if not spitting, they would put small insects, like ants or butterflies, then they would later tell me.
Some of my friends managed to break free from her, but I couldn’t, she kept on threatening me and I knew I stood no chance and realised that I could never break free.
I remember there was a time when my mom had came to visit me at home, she brought me earrings and they were the first earrings I owned in my childhood. So I went to school the following day, wearing them, the “boss” told me how ridiculous I looked in them, she then ordered me to take them off, I just stood there and looked at her, she ordered me to take them off and carve a 2 on my forehead, I refused, that was when she decided to take them from me, till this day, I don’t know what happened to my earrings.
I wish parents, teachers, and the department of education could take the issue of bullying seriously, because not only does it lowers a child’s self esteem and make them feel worthless and helpless, it also robs them off of their future, forcing them to drop out of schools or even worse, leading them to commit/ attempt suicide.
To parents; if your child, all of a sudden does not want to go to school, it is your duty to figure out why. Children could be very secretive, go to school and find out what is happening in your child’s life, talk to the teachers, talk to the friends and visit the principal’s office if need be. Ask them how their day was like, ask what they did in class, ask who they hang around with during break, find out what they like or hate about school, don’t assume that things are alright just because they look fine to you.
Lets all take bullying seriously for the sake of our children’s future.
We don’t want a bitter and hatred driven generation
we want a better and goal driven generation.
No comments:
Post a Comment