Violence of such savagery being inflicted by a group of children on a contemporary that it leads to his death, really should give us all pause for thought. PHOTO: FILE
The report that a six-year-old was beaten to death by his classmates as the result of a children’s dispute about the unlocking of a school gate, gives us a chilling insight. Violence in the adult world is commonplace and has to be extreme before it is remarked upon. But violence among children is relatively unusual — or so one might think and assume — beyond the scraps and playground fights that happen in every country and every culture. Violence of such savagery being inflicted by a group of children on a contemporary that it leads to his death, really should give us all pause for thought. The child, a pupil at a government-run primary school, was trying to leave school during a break but the children deputed as gate guardians would not let him do so and then set about beating him with their fists, kicking him and then using sticks to beat him. He died of his injuries.
Such an incident should set alarm bells ringing. It seems that no responsible adult within the school went to the aid of the boy being beaten, and then failed to summon medical help when it was clear that he needed it. Some teachers deny this, but an adult should have intervened as the boy’s screams were widely heard in the neighbourhood. What is, perhaps, of greater concern than the failure in duty of care, is the actions of the boys who killed their class fellow. They collectively participated in the murder of a child and none of them thought to stop individually themselves or stop their fellows from committing murder. This represents a complete absence of a vital piece of their moral architecture — the ability to distinguish between right and wrong coupled with the inability to recognise and control aberrant behaviour in themselves. None of these children are going to be prosecuted as they are below the age of criminal responsibility but we hope that this failure of moral compass is checked both in individuals and society.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 28th, 2014.
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mind numbingly shocking. This is an indictment of our society and the savagery and monstrosity which prevails. We have become so barbaric and inhumane that even children as young as six are not immune from the influence. This incident should provide an opportunity to reflect to all adults and parents as it is our collective failure as a society to condemn violence and excuse it on the grounds of "them being wrong". The blasphemy laws and violence it leads to which are excused on the grounds of the accused being wajib ul qatl due to disrespect of our religion, terrorism excused on the grounds of 'not following sharia' or 'terrorists are retaliating due to xyz factors' have let this come to pass. Very very sad.
The death of a young soul is sad. The fact that children were responsible for his death is doubly so. It is the mirror of a society where people, including small kids are being killed by those who think killing is solution to some divine manifesto. Every day there is a bomb blast and children see this and may come to the conclusion that this is part of normal life. I know children who are brought up with love and affection and do not resort to violence. Brain of a child cannot grasp the reasons when parents beat them up and may think beating up is part of parental love. We need to encourage child upbringing as part of tolerant and flexible relationship, where children can have different views and are not faced with violence at home When I visit western families, am surprised how kids refute parents if they think what they say is not accurate without fear. Respect does not mean to say 'yes sir' all the time. Children brought up with such attitudes do not hurt other physically. Perhaps there is more to the incident you write about than what I understood, but I maintain authoritative upbringing is part of the problem.