SLC | S22W2 : Anti-bullying Campaign by Teachers

Bullying is what you will find held at high esteem among public school students in Nigeria, not only in public schools but also in private schools, but minimal. We had a case like this when I was in a private secondary school; a senior student kicked a junior student in JSS1, a fresher, just for climbing her class block. The most surprising thing here was the bully was a girl. This kick led to the young lad losing about 14 teeth. It was a serious case that caused a serious crisis in school. Nobody knew what came over her, but I tell you the truth: it was the worst case of bullying throughout my secondary school days.

Before I define bullying, I would love to state the reason that is assumed to be the cause of bullying: first is entitlement of respect; many seniors feel they must be respected like a mini god, and junior students should greet them multiple times before their brains read the greetings, and this entitlement is as a result of resident pride. They are very autocratic, not always ready to accept other students opinions. The next and most common, which could generalise everything, is the quest for power. These things are adamant in us humans; we always want power by all means, and with this, we tend to look for the scapegoat to display an oppressing/subjective power upon.

So I will define bullying as a state of the mind where an individual's quest for power leads him to oppress another. The reason I am defining it this way is because the oppressor might not find fault in the oppressor but still tries to exercise this power to show authority or seniority.

If I am in the position to tackle bullying in schools, I have a lot of ways to do that.

• Explosion/Dismissal: Taking the bad eggs from the good ones will be my first approach; there is something we need to know: once a bad egg in the system gains support from others, his activity continues, but once the bad egg is dismissed or expelled for some time, the ability to infiltrate the system with his bullying activities is slim.

• Call for the Attention of Parent: Most times parents are not fully aware of their parents behaviour in school unless they are told. The reason this should be done is because most children are influenced by others behaviour, so their parent involvement in this will lead to the exposition of their child's behaviour, exposing maybe the pretence at home.

• Punishment: That child must be disciplined because most times when cases like this are overlooked, the bully may think he is superior, so the bully must pass through labour; part of the punishment is still expulsion.

• Education: Some students who engage in activities like this do so because they have not been taught ways to live among people without seeking much entitlement; there may be right in punishing another, but the severity of this, in a harsh manner, is what is called bullying, which they may not know, so showing them ways of bullying another student will definitely make them stop; some get another student provision just because he is the senior. Enlightening them on the effect of this on students will be very useful.

I was able to make an anti-bully emblem, but this time I didn't draw it but made some students in my hometown, including my bro, act it so that I can compile it and create a meaningful poster. The steps are quite simple: just the arrangement and removal of the background to add beauty to the image on my Canva Pro subscribed version.

• The images you will see here are mainly the image of a bully and the bullied; most times the bullied might not be younger than the bully and vice versa. You can see a single senior student, as I will call him, fight with two junior students, and since he is huge and with vast strength, he is able to put them in the dust.

• You will also see a child whose head is plastered and whose cheeks have swollen due to massive blows to the cheeks. You will also see one who is crying because he was bullied; incidentally, this kid may not show up in school the next day because he/she will definitely feel some pain in most areas of the body. Things like this make students miss class and cannot study well due to the fear of their superiors in schools.

I prefer English here because this is the language we use in Nigerian schools, and from my writeup, I will say.

Bullying is never enough to gain respect; stop bullying.

I would love @pea07 @goodybest and @walictd to join in this contest