What was the motive? The question has been blaring in my head since I watched that disturbing video.
Had the little boys done something so atrocious it warranted them that kind of humiliation? Or was it for entertainment, something to lighten up the dim boring school routine?
I'm talking about the boys who were forced to perform indecent acts by their teachers in Kisii County.
When did humiliating children become a way of correcting bad behaviour? Sadly, it is not new, one could have thought that children would be safer after the abolishment of corporal punishment, but seemingly, it is not so.
Essentially, most people can recall a teacher who did something extremely repugnant at some point. Personally, I always remember the headmaster in our primary school who paraded two class six boys naked. Many years later, I still remember covering my face with a sweater, I could not stand the look on those frightened little faces.
Humiliation is a form of emotional abuse, not correction. It is injurious, and those wounds are likely to remain for a lifetime, forever scathing. Try imagining how those boys will trail through life, they will be labelled, and even if they move to another city or galaxy, the memory shall persist, with those videos forever haunting them.
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Many people online are claiming that corporal punishment could have been a better alternative, but haven't we seen parents and teachers wounding, maiming and even killing the kids? Most adults do not have the emotional intelligence to correct children in that manner, some will just use them as egress to their own negative emotions-psychological displacement.
Aren't there other ways to correct, say suspension, time-out, counselling, or even expulsion?
Schools make a great part of our childhood, it is where we play, learn, grow and socialise- some of us made friends in school that are still in our lives even today. It should be like a garden where vegetables are planted, watered and sometimes, weeded.
How to tell if your child is being harassed in school?
First, they will tell you about it if you have an open communication route, your children must see you as their confidant. Make them feel comfortable telling you about their day, what they did, and who hurt them-show them so that you can defend them in such a case.
Teach them how to be treated, how to be respected, what they can take and where to draw the line.
If you are not the type to listen or pay attention, they will probably start malingering and truanting. If your child fakes an illness or an injury to avoid going to school, and leaves the house but never arrives, something vicious is definitely cooking.
Also, if your child shows overt aggression and irritability like hitting a pet, slamming the door, getting into fights and even speaking back at you, put on your investigative shoes.
Elimination is a child's distress alarm. If your child is above six and they suddenly start or haven't stopped bedwetting, you should be very worried. It is worse when they take a dump on themselves.
Parent them and so much will be prevented, including defilement, didn't we recently hear of teachers impregnating students?
Sadly, most parents nowadays are not paying attention. Are completely self-absorbed-deeply immersed into their own selves, parenting locked somewhere in a metallic box.
So these children go through all that alone, with no one to talk to, and then the same parents will complain when their children end up becoming deviants!