An alert!

Few days back, my son has reported an unusual incident happened at the school premises.

It appears that when he was coming out of the class walking down the steps, a senior student came to him and slapped on his face. My son did even not know the boy; forget about thinking of any other possibility for that slap. The senior boy was with his bunch of friends and all of them started laughing after the slap.

My son was perplexed and started sobbing. After a while he saw the same student playing in the field. He asked one of the instructors about the class of student playing and collected the information.

Back home, after he narrated the incident, we were in dilemma on what to do next? Was that just for fun? If no, then what was the reason behind that? And if yes, then it appears to be the case of a deadly cultural virus trying to get its feet established in a disciplined school.

There were various incidents of bullying in schools reported in new channels and many have ended in dangerous outcomes. One senior student stabbed a junior student so that the exams can be postponed. One had shot another junior student for personal gains. This virus if maltreatment of junior students by the seniors, if not contained at its early stages can widespread and take the entire school or the college under its influence.

And if parents complain of such incidents in advance, their wards need to undergo further constant mental torture in the form of investigations after the real physical one. The kids’ mental peace gets interrupted; they may even enter into inferiority complex or depression.

This ‘game’ what seniors play also become a part of ragging in various colleges and schools after some time. Slapping, beating, harassing, punishing and other such activities are reported to be carried out at various schools with many of them leading to serious problems at school and colleges. Parents after sending their kids to school are still never sure about their safety.

Anyways, we have requested the principal to pass on a strict warning to the senior students, especially the boys about such games and misbehavior in general, probable in the assembly. We also told the principal to also convey them that such activities are recorded in the CCTV cameras and any further such incident shall lead to the termination of the student. This way the one to one enmity between two students can be avoided and others too if getting indulged in such malpractices can take it as a warning bell.