(Bully Fanon website)
It
is quite a shame that Alliance has to be in the news for the wrong reasons.
Usually they are in it, shouting and praising the form fours who had left the
previous year for the ‘A’s they brought to the school. To some it is a new phenomenon
that students are beating students, but to me it is not.
I
went to a so called ‘bush’ high school. It is however famous in the part of the
county it hails from. Here, beating of students by fellow students was a common
thing during my time. It was almost routine. To make it worse, once you were
beaten by the prefects they took you to the teachers who also beat you.
Of
course they were not using sticks only to beat their fellow students, but
anything they found. Those who were forwarded to the teachers were usually
those who had resisted the beating. The teachers also found out that sticks
were ineffective and felt the need to use their fists to correct the errors of
the student.
I am
not writing this to justify or normalize the beatings of students by other
students, rather it is a highlight of what was happening. I promised myself that
nobody would beat me and yet were on the same level, even if they were
prefects. It is said that power corrupts and I saw students turning on their friends
once they became prefects and beat them senselessly. Moreover, the deputy head boy
in my final year used his last weekend in school by beating a form one. His
term had officially ended when the new prefect unit took office, but he still
took his time, instead of reading for his paper on Monday to correct a form
one. I at times ask myself how he lives with himself, and what would happen if
he were to meet the last guy he beat up.
Some
of the beatings were serious, but the prefects had immunity. The teachers
supported the beatings. The parents also seemed to like it, because whenever
such incidences were reported, no parent complained. It was a ‘bush’
school after all. Who cared?
(Bully Fanon website)
Maybe
the principal of Alliance came from such schools that is why he brought it to
Alliance. To him there was nothing wrong. High school students are a vulnerable
lot because they are going through their adolescent stages. Give them too much
power and they abuse it. Asking them to beat each other becomes normal.
It
is time that this issue was addressed. It had to reach a top flier school for
it to come out, but at least it has. Now we need to see change. Students go to
school to read and build their future. We will not advance as a country when we
have students living in fear and dread of their other students.
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