Bullying - a social issue never to be underestimated

ILT Authors
Jul 10, 2018
4 min read

Updated: Jul 13, 2018

JULY 5, 2018

BY TEH KEAN HOOI & TEOH MIN JIEH

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcDcW_QzPks

"Be a buddy, not a bully." ~ Certified play therapist, Priscilla Ho

Many victims of bullying are frustrated and depressed but we can guide them out of the dark.

A great number of us have been bullied when we were in primary school and the statistic that was released by UNICEF Malaysia in 2015 showed that the figure is soaring as high as 80 per cent.

Can you imagine that most of these bullying took place in the classroom, well we cannot because schools and classrooms are supposed to be a safe haven for our kids to play, learn and grow.

Certified play therapist Priscilla Ho has given talks on child bullying at TEDx Weld Quay before.

In the podcast posted above, Daniel and I interviewed a certified play therapist Priscilla Ho, whose job role revolves around listening to the concerns of children and their family and helping them to make sense of all that is happening in their lives.

Ho has over 13 years of working experience in helping children with poor mental health.

She is very much involved in helping kids and teenagers who are facing bad and traumatic experiences due to bullying or family negligence.

According to the handbook ‘Be A Buddy, Not A Bully” prepared by her in 2016, she said the scope of bullying is not hard to define at all.

She wrote that bullying is a behaviour by an individual or a group, usually repeated over time that intentionally causes harm to another individual either physically or emotionally.

In the interview, she repeatedly stressed that bullying is indeed a learned behaviour and it can be unlearned for sure.

She said bullies must be aware of the consequences as bullying is a crime and not some fun activities that they can carry out and said “Oops sorry, I’m not aware.”at the end of it.

Students who are perceived to be weak are often targeted by bullies in education institutions.

It is understood that the education institutions have their standard operating procedure (SOP) in place to handle any bullying case but she is disappointed to see that Vasanthapiriya did not get that same treatment when she was accused of stealing her teacher’s iPhone back in early February this year, leading to her alleged suicide that cost her life.

Besides, Ho rejects the idea of making fun of another person because she feels that the thought of the person who carried out the act is extremely important.

“If students continue to make fun of another through their so-called ‘birthday prank’, it may give them a sense of control over the other individual and this is part of a poor mental wellbeing as it feels good to belittle others and the action does not come to a stop,” she commented.

When asked if she thinks bullying is a serious social issue in this era, she has a very staunch stand that it is very much so because lives are lost.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMelOyNDFW4

She criticised about the need for someone to exert power over another and she said it is a weakness, not a strength.

No matter what form of bullying it might be, it is just as serious and she commented that emotional pain is severe as the pain is not a physical one that will heal over time like bruises.

“Emotional pain will resurface again and again, making the victims feel hopeless, worthless and do not deserve to be in this society anymore, leaving them subjected to taking their own lives,” she mentioned.

Bullying comes in many forms and cyber-bullying torments the victim 24/7.

She added that the emotional pain resulted from cyber bullying will haunt the victims all the time as the act is announced to the whole world via social media posting and it shames the victim tremendously.

“I believe all of us know that serious mental health problems lead to depression and some victims dare not leave their house because nowhere else is safe to them.

“For the bullies it may lead to serious mental health illness of wanting to hurt another and the ultimate consequence for them is to be put behind bars,” she illustrated.

“The culture of bullying is not to be allowed anywhere, period.

“All of us have the responsibility to help the victims so none of us should keep quiet about it,” she urged.

Meanwhile, we also interviewed a college lecturer and two college students and they gave us quite similar responses in terms of perception of bullying and all.

They made us believe that most of our opinions are the same in the fight to end bullying.

Moreover, it is great to see that the Penang state government has started a good initiative in organising a Penang Against Bullying Walk on Feb 26 this year and the former Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng was proud to see that many have signed up for the pledge to end bullying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yjaAknSErk

If you are a bully, stop now as it is not too late; if you are a victim, seek help because no one is meant to be bullied; and if you are neither one of them, do your part and report any occurrence to the authority.

Let us join hands and together we #StopBullying365.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6Pld5P9sbI

(Ho showed us an inspirational award-winning short film that tells us there is light at the end of the tunnel even though you are depressed in life, never ever give up on it.)