Moeding College bullies face the music

GORDON KEMBLEY
Correspondent | Thursday March 29, 2007 00:00

The boys are alleged to have bullied others into 'having sex with a doll,' in which they had made an opening in the genital area.  The inquiry follows an investigation by Mmegi after some parents complained that their children were being subjected to abuse in the form of forceful penetration of a 'human-sized doll'.

'What the boys are said to have done, as the hostel captains and the victims confirm, is repulsive...where they get it from I don't know. Before, we knew bullying to be when a student assaulted another, forced them to salute to them or forced them to use a different route, say to the dining area, but this is just repulsive,' said school head David Tregilges.

Tregilges said when he took over, as headmaster in 2005, there was a lot of indiscipline in the school. 'I have made the issue of bringing discipline to the school a priority. I will not rest until the hostels are calm and civilised,' he said.

Tregilges said that to show that his administration really meant business his school expelled 35 students from boarding last year, for violent and uncivilized behaviour. He said that the latest issue is a speck in the good record that the school had started to build since his arrival.

'Bullying of students by others is a problem that has been going down since I came here in May 2005 and after I made it priority number one to bring order to the boys' hostels. The case at hand simply shows that we can never truly say that we have been able to completely deal away with incidents of bullying. We have about 800 boys, and with that number you will always expect to have some incidents and to be disciplining people,' he said.

About the latest case, Tregilges said that he had had a meeting with some students who had been abused by the two boys and that the boys revealed the names of the bullies.
'It is important to make students realise that we will not condone a culture of violence... I have discussed this case with the council of ministers (SRC) and I will definitely take action.... one case is one too many,' he said, adding that his administration is prepared to expel undisciplined students from boarding.

Tregilges said that as a way of reducing the number of bullying incidents the school had introduced a system where reports of abuse can be made anonymously, as abused students often fail to make reports for fear of victimisation.

'The reports come in through individual students, prefects and teachers. This has resulted in a drop in the cases, but you will always have cases of ill-treatment in a big school. That is why we cannot afford not to take action in this latest case. An example has to be set if we are to have civility at our school,' he said.

Punishment may include expulsion from boarding, coupled with either corporal punishment or hard labour.