Traumatized childhoods : Normalised bullying culture bedevils schoolchildren

Psychologists claim the vice is cyclical

LAHORE:

While schools are widely considered safe havens for young minds to be nurtured and personalities to be polished, the normalized prevalence of the bullying culture in schools across the provincial capital, paints a disturbingly different picture.

Since bullying is seldom seen as a problem by the society at large, given the almost nonexistent data available, little attention is paid to the significant ways in which the childhood experience of physical bullying, like battering and ragging, and verbal bullying comprising body shaming and name-calling, can have serious lifelong repercussions for the victim whose personality development, social skills and even future academic prospects are all adversely affected.

Sharing the devastating mental health consequences of being persistently bullied, Abdul Rafay, a ninth grader at a private school said, “Boys at my school constantly poke fun at me, as a result I have become depressed, anxious and emotionally detached, over time.”

According to psychologists, regularly bullied schoolchildren respond to the humiliation in either of two starkly different ways. “Either they develop trust issues, retreating into depression and complete isolation or they try seeking revenge on other less powerful children, which could include younger children at school or even their own little siblings,” revealed Dr. Rafia Rafiq, a school counsellor.

Dr. Rafia highlighted a very important aspect of the bullying culture here; the fact that it is cyclical. Since every child who gets bullied has a very high probability of someday turning into a bully themselves, victimizing other children, the cycle continues, seemingly without an end.

Where bullying in itself plagues the safety and well-being of young children, the advent of technology and the widespread usage of social media by youth has exacerbated the debilitating effects of the vice. “Social media has worsened the problem of bullying since now students not only bully children but also film the deed,” said Muhammad Rafiq, a senior teacher at a high school.

Instances like the Scarsdale incident, have shown school children being beaten up by gangs, with some bullies participating in the violence and others gleefully recording the misdeed, before uploading it on to TikTok or the dark web for petty views.

On a similar note, a gang consisting of 18- to 20-year-old high school students from different private schools, known as Gang 102, reportedly beats up fellow students, posting their videos on streaming platforms like YouTube. Their most recent target was an O’ Level student who was severely battered in a snooker club to the point where he had to be taken to a hospital because his head had been slit open. As an eyewitness to the event, Saleem Shahzad recalls, “A group of 20 to 25 boys, wearing similar attire, came into the snooker club and started beating a boy with sticks and crates, causing him severe injuries.”

Even though no formal data exists on less violent manifestations of bullying, school administration officials confess the high prevalence of the problem in public and private schools alike. Shabana Taimur, a teacher long associated with a private school, informed that bullying is extremely common in schools nowadays, so much so that some bullies even have the audacity to hurl disgraceful remarks at their teachers, without fearing the consequences.

In order to devise the solutions to any social ill, the first step is to identify its root cause. In attempting to unravel the reasons behind such sadist and demeaning behaviors in young children, The Express Tribune spoke to a variety of experts, all of whom identified various factors.

According to the vice principal of a private school in DHA Lahore, a child’s family arrangement and household mannerism shapes their demeanor in school. “If a child has grown up watching their parent’s abuse and mock those around or even each other, they tend to imitate that learned behavior with their peers at school,” she added. Similarly, she further noted that growing up in single parent setups or in households with domestic abuse can cause emotional disturbances in children, increasing their susceptibility of participating in bullying.

“Since young minds are deeply impressionable, regular exposure to violent movies and video games can also solidify aggressive tendencies in children,” commented Dr. Rafia.

Speaking of the possible solutions to the vice of bullying, Dr. Rafia highlighted the importance of psychological counselling. “It is of utmost importance that schools facilitate mental health and counsel not only the bullies but also the victims of bullying so that they can be prevented from targeting other children in the future.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2023.