DR RADICA MAHASE
“From the time my son started secondary school he has been bullied. It started off with the children just laughing at him because he has problems reading and because he stammered when he spoke.
"By the end of the school year it turned into verbal comments and name-calling. At first his teachers tried to correct the other students but then they realised that nothing they said was stopping his classmates, so they just didn’t bother any more.
"Soon it became a school-wide thing – students from all the different forms knew him as ‘the weird boy.’ I don’t think anyone was calling him by his proper name, instead he was ‘Weirdo’ or ‘Lipsy’ or ‘Stammer boy’ to the whole school population.
"The bigger boys took it further and started picking on him, taking his lunch and money and even his pens and books.
"My son got depressed and was scared to go to school. The school said they couldn’t do anything because he 'already had a reputation' and they advised us to transfer him.
"We took him out and started home-schooling because we saw how scared he was to go to school. The happy child we knew was disappearing little by little and becoming a depressed, scared little boy.”
Paula, the parent above, is the mother of a 13-year-old, Jaiden, who was diagnosed with autism and ADHD. Jaiden attended a private primary school, wrote the SEA and passed for a denominational secondary school.
He was excited and proud to start secondary school, but all that changed when the bullying started.
According to Jaiden, “The other students kept saying that I wasn’t like them. I stammer sometimes and when I had to read loud in class they would all laugh. I would dread when the teachers call on me to read or answer a question. I would slouch down in my seat and try to make myself invisible.
"I knew the work, I just needed to do it slower, and I felt bad when they laughed at me.”
Bullying is a common problem in schools, and is prevalent for both neurotypical students and those with special needs, not just in TT but in many other countries.
A report by UNESCO in 2021 on Violence and Bullying in Educational Settings – the Experience of Children and Young People with Disabilities has noted, though, that: “Learners with disabilities are disproportionately affected by school violence and bullying at all ages and in all learning settings and that this adversely affect their education, health and well-being.”
Here in TT, it is difficult to quantify the bullying of students with disabilities/special needs because of the lack of data. It is also not clear how many other students like Jaiden had to change schools or to drop out of school completely because of high levels of bullying, not only by fellow students but also by teachers.
[caption id="attachment_1034757" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Allowing both neurotypical and children with special needs/disabilities to interact can help in eradicating stigma and discrimination. - courtesy Alex Singh[/caption]
What is clear, though, is that students with special need
