Last week, a friend’s WhatsApp status shook my emotion. It was a disturbing video. The video showed a 9-year-old boy, Quaden Bayles, with dwarfism in emotional pain because of being bullied in school. In the video, the young boy can be heard saying “I’m going to kill myself” amidst tears.
The moment which brought me to tears. was caught on camera by his mom.
My first thought was, “Why are kids so cruel?” I can understand cruelty in adults who have soaked in enough of life’s ills to be negatively influenced, but kids… how much of life could they have experienced for them to be mean? Or is it inborn?
A few friends were of the opinion that they’ve been influenced by their parents. However, this isn’t often the case, as we’ve seen good parents struggle with taming their wayward kids. So, then, is it peer pressure?
Perhaps there isn’t a one-answer-fits-all approach to this. Perhaps, it’s a mix of several lapses – family, friends, the environment, social media, et cetera. Whatever the case is, I believe parents play a pivotal role in ensuring kids don’t turn out to be societal menace.
Bullying needs to be nipped in the bud, not just because it is inherently bad, but because of the adverse effect on the bullied kids.
Another story recently went viral on Facebook where a Nigerian young man shared a story of how the body shaming of a student by him and his friends resulted in the boy’s death.
Kids need to do and know better and the gauntlet is placed in the hands of parents.