The hate crime called bullying

According to report-it.org.uk, “if a person is bullied as a result of their disability, race, religion, sexual orientation, it is also dealt with either as a hate crime or non-crime hate incident.

Bullying could include name-calling, being spat at or kicked, or having your things taken or damaged”.

The story of Damilola Taylor is still as fresh as yesterday. The boy would have been a 26-year-old man by now.

According to the news, some teenage boys stabbed him with a broken bottle on his way back home from the library. He had spent only a few months in the United Kingdom when this unfortunate incidence happened.

Whether justice was served or not, is another “kettle of fish”.

What is justice anyway? Will it bring him back to his mother’s arms?

I can only imagine how terrified that boy must have been. A new kid on the block will get ruffled a bit, based on statistics, at least, which, does not make it right in any form.

I was removed from a school in primary 4 to another; the anxiety on the last day at my old school and first day in my new, was killing.

I was terrified that I would not make new friends. You look for that one person in an environment, that wants to talk with you, sit with you at break time.

Interestingly, John Boyega, who is famous for his role in Star Wars, was one of Damilola’s friends.

As a matter of fact, the CCTV reveals that him and his sister escorted Damilola, to a certain place, which they might have assumed was safe. Little did they know, little did Damilola know, that evil was lurking around the corner.

In another incidence, on the 16th of August 2016, Daniel Fitzpatrick killed himself at his home. It was claimed that he was being bullied and the "teachers didn’t help". The police found a note by his body; “I give up”.

On the 29 of September 2016, 11-year-old Asad Khan, went up to his room and hung himself, after making claims that he was being bullied in his new school.

Bethany Thompson was diagnosed with brain tumor at the young age of three. She had to undergo radiation at that young age and has been cancer free since 2008. Some damaged nerves during the course left her with an “awkward” grin; she was bullied for that. She killed herself.

These stories are culled from the web; they are incidences that took place in the "West".

Here in Nigeria, bullying is a common phenomenon among our children.

I do not believe that the School, the Community, fellow students are doing enough to curb this evil that has instilled fear into our children. Even Parents seem to be active in the war against bullying when their children are victims.

In majority of the cases, when their children are the bullies, they turn the other way and pretend they are not aware.

Bullying affects the psychology of the bullied AND the bully. They both need help and the school bodies need to be united and proactive in dealing with this situation.

I should state that there are instances where the bullied becomes a murderer.

Akinbowale is known as the "Woolwich knife man", he is one of the two murderers of Lee Rigby. He was bullied alongside Damilola Taylor, interestingly, one turned out dying, the other killing someone. Same situation with different outcomes.

BULLYING is evil; we should arrest it by any means possible, before it arrests our children.