Don’t brush off bullying as a rite of passage or that children need to toughen up as everyone has a part to play against it.
A Form Five boy wanted to borrow a pair of football boots but his 15-yer-old junior said no.
That night, the same junior was brutally assaulted by 10 other boys in his dorm.
He was so badly beaten up that he was rushed to the hospital with a fractured left rib, injuries to the head, back and stomach as well as bruises to his chest.
According to reports, this scene took place at a residential school in Malaysia and it isn’t the first, nor is it likely to be the last.
Now a police case, the scuffle took place when the Form Five students allegedly beat up six Form Two victims.
The 10 have since been expelled.
Despite the heavy campaigning by the Education Ministry and countless programmes by non-governmental organisations, bullying still continues to occur in schools.
Malaysian Psychological Association president Dr Goh Chee Leong believes that this is because an environment that doesn’t actively discourage bullying can, in fact, encourage this endemic problem to fester.
As an example, he says that “institutionalised bullying” still takes place in some schools through ragging.
“It is almost semi-encouraged through the prefects, senior students and hostel wardens to teach and ‘discipline’ the juniors,” he says.
Ragging in residential schools have been highlighted by the media when their juniors are forced by seniors to do, perform humiliating acts and endure insults as well as beatings for no apparent cause.
Dr Goh says that based on a Unicef study he was part of in 2007 and 2008, they discovered that bullying cases are not isolated incidences in any particular location.
“It’s usually done in a context where the environment is either actively encouraging or is complicit in the act,” says the HELP University Faculty of Behavioural Sciences dean.
This, he adds, is true in schools where teachers just brush aside students or parents who complain about bullying.
Phrases like “boys will be boys”, “solve it yourselves” and “rite of passage” are not uncommon.
On the reasons why bullying occurs, Dr Goh’s paper on the psychosocial impacts of violence and bullying on children, says that some victims of bullying harbour intense anger and bitterness towards bullies and the social cliques that condone and support bullying behaviour.
This anger, if unresolved, may lead to victims becoming bullies themselves with younger children, and are classified as bully-victims.
Unicef defines bullying as “aggressive behaviour that is intentional and that involves an imbalance of power or strength.
“It occurs across all geographic, racial and socioeconomic boundaries.”
Malaysian Mental Health Association deputy president Datuk Dr Andrew Mohanraj says: “There is no such thing as being bullied ‘toughens up ‘ a child or subscribing to the common fallacy of ‘boys being boys.”
He says that if the school is serious about being a safe environment, there should be no compromise on bullying.
He adds that ragging, though common and on the pretext of bonding and the formation of lifelong friendships, should also be shown “zero tolerance.”
“Ultimately, parents must keep a close watch on their children and not depend on schools to ensure their child’s safety and psychological well being .
Parent Action Group for Education Malaysia (PAGE) chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim strongly agrees schools, especially school heads need to make a firm stand on the matter.
“Many (school heads) do not because school leaders are more concerned about grades and performance.
“A bully case made public is the last thing any principal wants. Schools prefer to see the victim discreetly transfer out of the school and the bullies merely given a warning as eventually they will grow up and leave the school,” she adds.
She says that their lackadaisical attitude has to stop if they want to put a halt to bullying among their students.
She adds that “bullying parents” also factor into children becoming bullies.
There is also the fact that children with parents who use corporal punishment can become withdrawn, and ultimately, victims of bullying.
Noor Azimah doesn’t believe that anti-bullying messages are effectively getting across to students.
“Anti-bullying campaigns as far as students are concerned appears to be one of a nagging nature. It goes into one ear and out the other.”
She adds that a better solution lies in consistent psychological counselling and therapy for the bullies.
“While school counsellors may be able to handle minor cases of bullying the hardcore ones will require much more than that.”
Deputy Education Minister Datuk P Kamalanathan says that there is a possibility that children can pick up bullying tendencies from their surrounding environment.
He says that most children tend to spend more time at home compared to school.
“That being the case, it’s possible many positive and negative attributes are picked up from the home, though not to say the school environment is totally free from influence as well,” he adds.
“Children replicate what adults do and not what they say.”
Using road rage as an example, Kamalanathan says that children will think resorting to bullying and violent behaviour or words is acceptable if they see the driver doing it.
He also says that a parent’s style of disciplining their children is a very subjective issue.
“Personally, I feel all punishments done with a clear mind and in a controlled fashion, devoid of clouded emotions of anger and frustration are the best ways to discipline,” he says.
He stresses that punishment is meant to “correct and rehabilitate, not vent and cause pain”.
There was an increase in reported bullying cases from 2015 to 2016 from 0.06% to 0.11% in secondary schools.
Though worrying, Kamalanathan says that this increase is due to more videos going viral on social media.
Thus, prompting more people to actually report the incident to authorities.
He also encourages everyone to come forward and lodge a report with the authorities, even if bullying happens outside the school gates.
Handing over a video is also enough, so long as they can provide the location and time, he says.
However, he adds, people should verify their facts as he has had plenty of incidences where the videos were either old or from another country.
Complaint boxes for children to provide tip-offs on student misconduct and criminal activity in school are also available for those wanting to remain anonymous.
He also states that the ministry has a zero-tolerance policy towards bullying.
“Every case reported would be investigated and the bullies punished,” he tells The Star.
He adds that the disciplining process begins with rehabilitation through a focused counselling module.
He explains that the first step involves meeting the student to form their profile, which will be stored in their personal file.
There will also be a pre- and post-evaluation of the student at the end of their counselling course to assess the efficacy of the intervention.
“The ministry also uses peer influence through the ‘Pembimbing Rakan Sebaya’ programme and works with other government agencies such as the army and police to combat bullying through the Visionary Youth Programmes (Program Remaja Berwawasan).”
He adds that collaborations between Parent-Teacher Associations and the Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation also happen to help schools overcome the bullying problem.
For those who are expelled, they can be sent to Montfort Boys Town or transferred to another school.
“We don’t want to deprive a student of education. See, punishment is needed but we don’t want to take education away from the child,” he adds.
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