Chronicle Editor
Successful solutions with, Qaphelani Mabhikwa
My last article “Bullying destroys the victims,” was motivated by reading an anti-bullying article by a High School student Grace Hensman, a 13-year-old girl from a local private school. I was privileged to have come across this article after a colleague who knows I am a columnist sent this article to me to consider for sharing and I didn’t hesitate to share.
The opening of Grace’s article is, “Bullying is noticeably one of the most painful things children and adolescents can go through. It does not only damage one’s mental health it can drive them to physically harm themselves. As I am also ‘a young adult’ myself, only 13 years of age I have seen this first hand.
There is no excuse for bullying, although some research has shown that most bullies have also had their fair share of abuse, having unstable toxic households and much more. I still strongly believe that is no excuse for putting someone else through pain. Bullies are very much aware of what they are doing but they usually do not realise how much it affects the person on the receiving end of their disgusting actions…”
Grace in her article notes that most of the times bullying goes unnoticed at school because bullies can act totally different in the presence of teachers or other adults. She says she has taken it upon herself to help young adults change the way they treat each other.
I was exceedingly impressed by the great ideas of this 13-year-old girl. What needs be done is that the girl is supported but in the process this initiative should not be hijacked by adults, it needs to remain a student initiative as it is them who are affected and they know better how to go around the problem of bullying.
This initiative will of course need adult support and buy-in from the schools so that while it is run by students, they will obviously need teacher guidance and support. There is need to also make sure that the pioneer of the initiative and her steering committee while working on this beautiful project are not disturbed in their studies. The project should work like any other club in a school.
As a former high school teacher, I remember some popular school clubs with students were the Interact Club, the Debate and Public Speaking Club, Charity Club, Nature at Heart Club, Young Farmers Club (Agriculture Club) and Scripture Union. I remember time was actually allocated for clubs one afternoon during the week. The same should obtain with is initiative.
Grace needs to be assisted with more ideas also. I was thinking that she approaches her school and seeks authority to use her school as the centre of the anti-bullying initiative. There is no way she can preach the ant-bullying gospel without the support of the school. She needs to form a club at her school which she will lead. It is this club that she will use to approach other schools to sell the anti-bullying initiative.
The club needs the guidance of a teacher who will be the patron of the club. There is no harm in having more teachers, but these should be teachers with a passion for peace in the school. The structure of the club should be the basic club/society structure.
The leader of the club will be the chairperson and will need a deputy. There is need for a secretary who will take minutes during the club meetings. The clubs, school based as they may be, will have some funds and the club should have a Treasurer and an Organising Secretary to organise club events.
There can be two or three committee members. These young people should be taught the proper professional way to run clubs and societies.
Some schools might already have such clubs. They may not necessary be anti-bullying clubs, they may assume other names for example “The Peace Initiative Club” and recently I was reading of the ‘Zero Violence Brave Club’ in Spain.
The mandate of the club will be to foster strategic leadership and creating safe learning environments for all students in the school. The club should put in place mechanisms to enable victims to report incidents immediately and ensuring permanent safety and support of the victims after reporting. The schools should establish and share a vision with the entire school community about the type of school they would like to be in terms of a safe learning environment, so that students are assisted to develop preventive strategies.
This can be done through continuous anti-bullying awareness campaigns in the schools. This involves sharing of requisite literature regularly to all students especially the new ones. Distribution of anti-bullying brochures and putting up of anti-bullying posters around the schools. Schools differ in operations, but I know from my experience as a former teacher that each class has a teacher responsible for them, the ‘Class/Form Teacher’. The class teacher should at least once a month during class time, talk about bullying to create awareness of the ills of this vice and give students tips on prevention and advise on the process of reporting should they fall victim.
It is also important that parents are involved. During school meetings heads should make a deliberate attempt to discuss bullying with parents to create awareness. There should be promotion of partnership between families, teachers, and other professionals to promote initiatives to stop bullying. Parents of bullies should be brought on board to assist the school authorities in dealing with their errant children and bullying in general.
I have a word for parents. Let us be very much on the lookout for signs of bullying in our children and take immediate action should the child exhibit these signs. A lot of children are suffering quietly in school at the hands of the bullies.
Bullies will threaten their victims and the children will not verbalise that they are being bullied for fear of further reprisals from the bully. You will only realise through dislike of school, drop in school grades, drop in confidence and self-esteem. As discussed in my last article, the effects of bullying on the child are far reaching and if unattended to on time, bullying can totally destroy the child and it is not surprising that some children have committed suicide from bullying pressure.
May I conclude by touching again on Grace Hensman’s anti-bullying initiative. The 13-year-old girl wants to start anti-bullying programmes in high schools. She needs to be assisted with equipment, a laptop and a printer. She needs to be assisted to design and print anti-bullying literature in terms of brochures and posters. I am therefore appealing to all corporates and interested individuals to come forward with donations towards this noble cause.
All donations in cash and kind can be received through the Editor. She needs to be assisted to get buy-in at her school to start an anti-bullying club whose mandate will be to cascade the anti-bullying initiative to other schools. Bullying is a national problem and must be treated with the seriousness it deserves.
I am urging schools, especially high schools to consider introducing anti-bullying initiatives in schools. We have many a student who are suffering silently in their schools and by the time we realise it the student has had serious damage to their self-worth and reputation.
Schools should team up with parents to fight this vice which has grown out of proportion and threatens to destroy peace in our schools. A combined effort of the schools and parents is needed to foster safer learning environments for our children.
Online Reporter