Lagos State has a policy of no capital punishment which of
course includes flogging. Although many of the smaller
schools do not follow it to the letter, the big and expensive
schools on the island do not only take it to their extreme, but
they also observe a policy of hearing no evil.
Many of the kids from some of the homes of those who can
afford those exorbitant fees have spoilt brats as kids that
intimidate not only their juniors but also their teachers.
As a matter of fact, most of the teachers who teach in such
schools are subjected to the worse form of inhuman and
emotional abuse from the kids as well as their parents.
What the school management does in such situations is try
to manage the situation in a hush-hush manner so as not to
offend the parents who are often well placed in the society
and protect the image of the school. I won’t be surprised if
those kids have been problematic kids before now, yet the
school will lack the will power to either suspend them or
outrightly expel them, because they know that parents will
simply get admission into a new school and the new school
will be more than ready to admit them. No questions asked.
No background checks.
While it is true that some teachers can sometimes abuse the
privilege to enforce discipline, the alternative of making
them completely helpless does not help the kids at the end
of the day.
Some kids require iron hand, some soft hand, knowing the
difference is key. But when a kid of 9 tells a teacher to his
or her face that there is nothing you can do to him or her or
he would get fired.
You can imagine this young boy that died, was so scared of
telling the school and his parents what happened (at least
that is what I could make of the story) until the last
moments of his life.
Even a command high school run by soldiers will not
discipline a child to the point of death, yet some small kids
killed their fellow studies as a form of bullying.
I can’t wrap my head around it. Back in the days, bullying
used to be when you get a junior kid to go and fetch water
for you and other subtle punishments, when did the world
become so bad that they gave him something to drink that
ultimately killed him. And we are talking Lekki here.
Parents have to be more responsible such that their kids are
not victims of bullying or the bullies themselves.
