It is yet another tragedy in school that led to the death of a 12-year-old boy Sylvester Oromoni on November 30. He was a JSS 2 of Dowen College, Lekki, Lagos State and was alleged to have been beaten by students for refusing to be initiated into cultism. He sustained injuries and succumbed to death.
At first the school management said the young boy was injured while playing football on November 21.
Then the father Mr Oromoni in a heartrending video narrated how his son died. Sylvester told him he did not play football, that he was beaten by some students and mentioned some names.
Mr Oromoni said the school principal called and asked why he made that video and he said when he saw the story of the injury during football he had to speak. There was also the video of Sylvester in the hospital.
Then everybody got concerned and stories of cover-up, justice would not be done, that justice is only meant for the poor and on and on kept flying. This was more so when there were stories that some of the boys Sylvester mentioned have been ferried out of the country!
However, it is good to know that two of the boys have been arrested by the police.
Mr Oromoni said in another report earlier, “I am in pain, I and my family feel terribly bad over this loss; my boy did not sleep throughout the period because of the pain. I want justice to be done. All I want from the school is for it to produce those boys for prosecution. We had reported the case of harassment to the school before, what did they do? Educationally, it is a very good school, but administratively, poor.”
This unfortunate case is a wakeup call for parents, school authorities and the government to bring to the drawing board how schools are run, particularly boarding schools where students are entrusted to the schools for their safety.
There has always been ‘seniority’ by senior students in boarding schools to boss the junior students around by sending them to fetch water, wash their uniforms and run other errands. And prefects punished students for being late in leaving hostels to classes or Assembly Hall. The students were made to sweep some places or made to kneel down and so on.
There were however bullies among classmates, those that don’t want to learn and don’t want others to learn. They can pick on certain students to harass and intimidate. They are rude and they challenge the teachers. Sometimes such students were suspended or even expelled in a very rare situation.
But that scenario is in girls’ schools, in boys’ schools there are beatings and other physical horrors that only wicked boys can think of visiting on their fellow boys.
In the case of Sylvester people wondered about the whereabouts of the school supervisors such as House Master, House Captain, Teacher- on- Duty and Prefect- on- Duty.
In a girls’ schools there would be a Metron, a House Mother (student) and the Teacher-on-Duty goes to the hostel after ‘light out’ to check, but only female teachers are allowed to enter the hostels.
Therefore, with this layer of supervision it was surprising for such a beating to occur at the Dowen College without the authorities being notified or even the students being stopped before it got out of hand.
Apart from bullying the allegation of cultism is another thing that is distressing, that very young boys in secondary schools are into this menace that is claiming lives in tertiary institutions in some places as well as in some communities.
And these are privileged children in a very expensive school whose focus one would have thought would be purely on studies not cultism that some would associate with the deprived ones.
But this goes to show that money and privilege don’t confer good behavior likewise poverty does not make one a deviant.
Wherever a parent takes his child, the parent should insist on monitoring what happens there. Where there are bad eggs, they should be disciplined and if they prove to be impossible, the school should do the needful and expel the student.
Though some schools gladly admit such students where they congregate and form another group of deviants.
It is indeed time for all stakeholders and the government in particular to make sure everybody lives up to expectation and put a stop to abuse and negligence in schools that may prove fatal.
