Texas and Tamilnadu incidents-

 

I read with shock and distress about two incidents. One 17 year old boy in my state- Tamilnadu hacked to death his best friend and about the recent school shooting in Texas. 

Both incidents had one thing in common ( apart from other factors) Both boys had been victims of bullying. I am not justifying their acts at all. They performed criminal acts of violence. 

The Tamilnadu boy has been a victim of body shaming while the Texas boy has been bullied for his stuttering and other factors. 

As a society we are equally responsible for such crimes to be reduced and vanish from our existence. I am not going into politics here.

 If every home, if every school laid the foundation of relationships with EMPATHY we can bring down such violence. We are very accountable and responsible for the upbringing of every child placed in our care. As parents and teachers we must make the effort to be observant of our child's behaviour. 

If the society works together we can bring down bullying and shaming. I remember in the school where I worked last, we introduced Group Counselling -it was called Enrichment class- This class served to brainstorm issues faced by students and they would be responsible ( with our guidance) to find solutions. Bullying, body shaming, unhealthy eating habits, gender identity, gender equality , childhood trauma were all brought up and discussed. The overall result was bonding between classmates and empathy building. So much goodness cameo out of this. It also shocked/surprised us to see such issues existing in the otherwise near perfect environment. 

Let us adults take the effort to see below the surface. For this we MUST ensure we Connect and Communicate.