Enough of bullying in schools

Dear Editor,

The death of a Senior High School (SHS) student, which reportedly was as a result of bullying at Konongo Odumase Senior High in the Ashanti Region, is still fresh on my mind.  The sequence of the incident was not too clear but the reports indicate that the deceased was resisting bullying by his seniors.  

As investigation into the incident continued, I have been wondering what the Ghana Education Service (GES) had been up to since this unfortunate incident. I have been expecting the GES to condemn and issue a stern warning against bullying but I am yet to find any concrete statement from them.

Many years ago, during my final year in Senior High School, our Headmaster was compelled to ban what we called “Nino’s Night” — an old tradition and a sort of an ‘unofficial’ welcome for first year students.

Some seniors, on that day, had plotted ‘revenge’ on some of the juniors and were ready to subject them to different forms of torture. When the teachers got wind of the plans they quickly took action and cancelled activities scheduled for the night.

Certainly, the Konongo Odumase incident had nothing to do with Nino’s Night but showed the extent to which some seniors would want to exert their authority on juniors.  

I believe there are school regulations that proscribe bullying but it seems some students and teachers ignore them due to lack of enforcement.

It is time the GES introduced a policy document (if there is none) indicating zero tolerance for bullying in schools and must put measure in place to ensure such unfortunate incidents do not occur in future. We seem to have normalised bullying and must not allow the practice to fester.

My heart goes out to the school and family of the deceased while we wait patiently for details of police investigations into the incidents.

Pearl Adobea Otoo,

Asamankese.