Yes to independent probe

It’s too serious to be ascribed to chance when along the timeline of any incident surely lies a raft of preventative measures that could have been taken.

That is why we back the call by the National Parent Teacher Association (NPTA) for a fresh, independent inquiry into the incident in which nine-year-old Mayaro schoolboy Tristan Khan’s arm was reportedly broken by another pupil.

The NPTA rightly reasoned that doubts must necessarily surround the findings of an initial probe by the school authorities that the injury was sustained during alleged play-fighting between the two boys, when in fact any alternative finding that it was the result of an ongoing and calculated campaign of bullying against the victim would be damning to the very school authorities.

Education Minister Anthony Garcia and his team would have worked too hard at seeking to eliminate violence, taking a zero tolerance stance on bullying in the nation’s schools, to allow this incident to cast doubts over his efforts.

NPTA head Zena Ramatally rightly questioned the school’s findings by saying that even the purported scenario of the boys escaping school via a hole in the fence would in itself suggest negligence by the school authorities.

We agree with her that since the principal is responsible for pupils’ safety, his probe might be seen as “himself unto himself ” and so lack credibility.

The NPTA head also rightly states that the probe will benefit both victim and perpetrator. If it turns out to be not a case of an accident or recklessness but of intent, then some diagnosis should be done on the offending pupil. Is he a narcissistic bully who derives pleasure from his victim’s humiliation, or is he himself the victim of abuse at school, at home, or elsewhere, that he is now acting out, and what type of abuse? An independent party can unearth these details to help victim and perpetrator.

This is also an apt time for us all to take stock of the efficacy or otherwise of the oft-mouthed campaigns against school bullying.

While some measure of horseplay may be said to be natural among boys, bullying is a deliberate act aimed at demeaning the victim, whether done in the schoolyard, home or workplace.

Form teachers, deans, principals, counsellors, child psychologists and even parents of pupils must deploy a range of measures to nip bullying tendencies in the bud. Small interventions firmly applied at the onset can pre-empt disasters down the line when bullying becomes habit and invites massive retaliation by victim.

In addition, parents and pupils should be able to turn to an oversight agency (perhaps school supervisors) who can ensure their complaints to the school authorities are heeded, and without such complaints in turn setting up the complainant child for victimisation by the school authorities.

Anti-bullying awareness must pervade the school day, and not be just a publicity campaign wheeled out from time to time. Further, schools must work to lift the esteem of all pupils. For example, let’s get pupils away from the frenzied mindlessness of dancehall music (as cited in Prof Selwyn Ryan’s report, “No time to quit”) and instead better socialise them by the likes of team sports.

Local and foreign studies on bullying abound such that what is needed now is enactment of their recommendations, rather than resurrection of a debate as each bullying incident arises, the latest of which threatens a negligence lawsuit against the Ministry of Education.