Teacher, don’t leave them kids alone

Of course when Pink Floyd sang “Teacher, leave them kids alone” in Brick in the Wall, the message in the lyrics was about thought control, sarcasm and bullying by teachers and not that teachers should leave children to their own, sometimes nasty, devices while not in the classrooms but still in their care.

Bullying in schools by children rears its nasty head every so often, but it seems that some schools have still not appreciated the extreme damage that can be caused by harassment, especially when violent.

The case of Charlie (all the names in this article are pseudonyms. Criminal proceedings are currently underway), a 12-year-old boy whose life was put at risk and who has since attempted suicide a number of times as a result, had been brought to my attention while the boy was still in hospital.

He is now back home, but his parents have had to bar his bedroom window and he is constantly watched. I interviewed his mother, Mary and heard a horrific six-year saga, which has severely traumatised a boy who aged seven was awarded a prize for altruism by the same school that failed to protect him.

The mother alleges that the bullying by two boys started at primary level of the same Church school, got worse after the award and continued into secondary level with terrible results.

Because Charlie had missed primary school for a while due to an operation, the name calling included that he was a “sick” boy. The harassment was so intense that Charlie developed severe migraines and became obsessed that he was really “sick”, said his mum.
He was seen by a psychologist who persuaded him that he was not sick, and a neurologist believed his migraines were due to stress because of the bullying, she added.

I asked Mary whether the school had been notified about the bullying incidents. She insisted that both she and her husband had visited the school and recalls that on one occasion a teacher had said, “Don’t tell me, I know who they are. It’s Christopher and Patrick”. That indicated that the school was aware that something was going on, she told me.

Meanwhile, Charlie had to bear the brunt of insults and his homework and books were taken from him. During one break time, Charlie was beaten with, what she described as, “elasticised worms”, which led to his angry parents travelling to the other end of the island to see the director of the school, since they believed the bullying was not being taken seriously.

The mother even contacted the Education Department about the problem, but she was told that the school fell under the Curia’s jurisdiction and she should contact that institution, which she did.

She said the Curia representative was sympathetic and advised that they should consider sending their son to another school. Charlie’s parents considered that unacceptable since they felt that it was not the victim who should move. They were also told that the bullying boys would be suspended, which did not happen, said Mary.

Then, Christopher and Patrick fell out. Patrick befriended Charlie and even invited him to his birthday party. He told him not to worry anymore because he would now defend him in the playground.

While that friendship lasted the bullying had stopped, she said. However, following another operation Charlie needed, which kept him away from school for a couple of months, Christopher and Patrick were friends again and things were back to Charlie being harassed in the school grounds during the breaks.

I asked Mary whether they, or the school had ever approached the boys’ parents. She said that she had contacted Patrick’s mother after Patrick had kicked Charlie in the stomach, which she alleges was not the first time.

She had acquired the phone number at the time the two boys were friends and had visited each other’s homes. Mary said she told her that if Patrick no longer wanted to be Charlie’s friend that was his choice, but could she please tell him not to bully Charlie again.

“I got the impression that the school must have got in touch with the parents of the bullies that time because Patrick’s mother told me that she was pleased that I deigned to phone her this time and not just reported the boys to the school,” said Mary. Adding, that she told her that she had not phoned her before because she did not have her number.

Mary later got a call from the school telling her not to contact Patrick’s mother again, which she thought the school had no right to do since they obviously were not coping with the problem.

After that, as avoidance strategy Charlie volunteered to help with tidying up the games room during the break so he could stay away from the playground, his mother told me. But one day, about eight months ago, Charlie was down in the playground earlier than the time they were called to the classrooms.

Patrick and Christopher and another two boys, who it seems the bullies were trying to impress, confronted him said Mary. “This is the one I used to make cry,” Patrick told the other boys. However, this time Charlie decided to stand up to them and said “Well, you do not make me cry anymore”. That led to him being kicked in the groin then dragged to a part of the playground, which was out of bounds, she said.

The boys then tied him to a football post with his tie. They even told him “today we are going to kill you”, alleged his mother. The tie was drawn around his hands and his neck in such a way that if he tried to free himself he would add the pressure on his neck, she alleged. Luckily, some boys who had been watching from a safe distance came to his rescue as the bullies left.

However, by that time, his mother is alleging that Charlie had suffered brain damage through lack of oxygen and blood to the brain. He now has seizures and falls down and faints and imagines he is being followed and threatened by those boys, she said.

When they had turned up at the school, the day after the assault, the head master said he knew nothing about what happened because he was away from the school that day.
The assistant head, who was present, said the whole incident was a misunderstanding and the boys were playing a “joke”. She had also told Charlie “Why did you go and tell your mother?” Mary alleged.

That was the last straw for Charlie’s distraught parents. They said the doctors had told them that they should report the assault to the police. After the report was lodged the school director sent for Charlie’s parents and tried to get them to drop the criminal charges. He told them “Don’t you think it is sad that these boys are going to end up in court?” Mary alleged.

He claimed that the boys were only playing “Cowboys and Indians” and said that Charlie would suffer if the criminal proceedings went ahead, she further alleged.
Although the case surfaced in court eight months ago, it still has not been heard. Meanwhile, Charlie has changed his school, with the help of the Curia. It is still a Church school, which indicated that it was the administration of one particular school that his parents had no longer any faith in.

However, Charlie’s behaviour is still seriously problematic. During a recent school outing to Valletta, he jumped from the bastions into the sea, because he imagined the bullies were chasing him, his mother told me. Two teachers jumped in and rescued him.
He has also attempted to jump out of his bedroom window at home. More recently, he again tried to jump from a window at the school.

It is sad that two boys have ended up in court, but much sadder that their victim has suffered terribly. If only the school had reacted to the warnings things would not have got so far. The Court needs to hear this case as soon as possible in order for the parties to, at least, have some form of closure on this dreadful story.

Article published In The Malta Independent on Sunday  on 29 January 2012 

Read More

Human holding pens and bête noir or hero?

"It is now terribly chic to show how well off you are by living in close proximity with hundreds of people above and below and at each side of you in a concrete monster"

It would be funny if it were not, well crazy springs to mind.

While the EU is making waves to protect battery hens from being cooped up, nothing is being done for the well being of human beings.

We are building battery cages, in prime sites for the rich and even more cramped ones elsewhere for the not so rich, to the detriment of the rest of the population and nobody except a handful of people seem to give a damn.

The latter is where I agree with Franco Debono, i.e., that nobody except a handful gives a damn. He of course was not referring to building regulations, but more on him later.

Whereas wealth was previously demonstrated through detached villas with gardens, now it is terribly chic to show how well off you are by living in close proximity with hundreds of people above and below and to each side of you in a concrete monster.

Who on earth, in their right mind, would want to spend over the odds to live like a battery hen? Some of the prime site apartments might not be as cramped as a battery cage and some may have a spectacular view, but the overall buildings certainly look like human holding pens.

They are not even architecturally pleasing. They are horrendous to look at. Some of the Tignè flats might have a stupendous view of Valletta, but the opposite view from the city, which incidentally is what I grew up with, has been disastrously marred.

Ah, Valletta, a Unesco World Heritage Site, how you are being undermined with your toothless welcoming grin.

The latest wart to be doing the rounds on the Internet and surfaced in the news yesterday was an addition to the law courts building to make room for judges’ chambers.

A photograph shows the fresh ‘boil’ at its distasteful best. The project, commissioned by the government, which is said to cost €1.8 million, involves a building in Old Bakery Street, Valletta; it joins two adjacent old buildings and raises it to eight floors.

According to The Times, it had been recommended for refusal by the planning directorate when the first application was filed in 2001. The permit was approved by the commission in June 2007, overturning the directorate’s recommendation.

Now because of the current hoo-ha it is to be inspected by planning authority enforcement officers to ensure permit conditions are respected.

We are being taken for a roller coaster ride and I for one am not enjoying it. There are no planning policies setting a height limitation for buildings in Valletta, according to a planning authority spokesman.

But let’s get back to the concrete monsters marring the skyline between Sliema and Valletta. Over and above the aesthetic considerations, can you imagine climbing up all those stairs, with your shopping, a pushchair and a couple of toddlers, if the lift breaks down?

More importantly, at the risk of being labelled a Cassandra, what fire emergency plans are in place? Does Mepa (Malta Environment & Planning Authority) consider this vital safety measure in its deliberations?

I don’t know what kind of management agreements the new buildings, housing hundreds of people, have. But my experience of living in a block, of only four flats, is that even getting to agree on a new intercom system is proving difficult.

All you need is one defaulter for the building’s maintenance to come to a standstill and then the slow progression to a bourgeois slum.

Now Mepa on Thursday approved the building of three more blocks, two rising to 14 storeys, comprising a further 102 apartments, as well as shops and offices at Tignè North, despite all the objections raised by environmental NGOs.

The latter claimed that according to the 1992 local plan Sliema was already over-congested then and had warned against the building of more apartment blocks. Well wasn’t it a grand idea to have local plans! I wonder how much they had cost us (taxpayers) only to be ignored.

This is yet another reason to be wary of any promises made by politicians, especially now.

Now for the man who is alternatively the bête noir or hero of the hour. I cannot make my mind up about the guy. On the one hand I agree with all the reforms he says we need and the fact that the government has been slow, to say the least, to action them.

But, I sometimes think he needs a consultant to advise him on “What not to do”, a sort of alternative to the UK’s Trinny and Suzanna. There is no doubt that the government needed a good shake up, but it should have come as no surprise that the PN, as the current administration, would react as it did.

Debono’s lack of political experience has lead to his head to head confrontation with the PN grandees, who are much more skilful in the art of political intrigue. Did he really not foresee the amount of flax he was bound to get?

Two of a politician’s vital survival skills are a thick hide and avoidance of public self-pity. However, one must admit that his detractors, not the ones behind the scenes, are not doing so well either.

So he wants to be Prime Minister. It is after all every politician’s ultimate ambition, whether they talk about it or not. So he is contradicting what he wrote in his thesis. That is perfectly understandable. We all know that theory and practice don’t always match up.

Surely, some are not saying that one should never veer from what one has thought in the past. That would mean never admitting to one’s errors of judgement and would stifle new and progressive ideas, or maybe that is what some want.

Published in the Malta Independent on Sunday 22/01/2012

Read More

Media digging in the wrong place

 

>> While every angle of speculation was let loose on the January First horrific event, the same energy has not been dedicated to some serious digging into the Nationalist Party’s wheeling and dealing<<

As a journalist who had once been rebuked for being too curious, I am seriously questioning whether I chose the right métier, since I do not share the morbid fascination, demonstrated by most with regard to the New Year’s Day tragedy in Malta.

To put overseas readers in the picture, two men were stabbed to death in an apartment where one of them lived with his wife and newly born twins. The wife belongs to a relatively high profile family. The media acted like ravenous vultures and speculation was rife while the police were not releasing anything.

I am much more curious to know about things, which are not nearly so assiduously delved into by the media due to conflicts of interest. For example, the controversial Nationalist MP Franco Debono is constantly quoted, but there are so many unanswered questions about what really went on behind closed doors.

Although Debono has persistently dominated the political news, I am certain that we are not getting the full picture. It is interesting that while every angle of speculation was let loose on the January first horrific event, the same energy has not been dedicated to some serious digging into the Nationalist Party’s wheeling and dealing.

Debono’s detractors are saying that his latest outburst, claiming, "The only way out of this political crisis is for Gonzi (Prime Minister) to step down," is due to his anger that he was not given the Justice Ministry and they have a point.

For example, why is he asking for the PM to resign over the divorce referendum now? He had been consistently saying, until Friday, before the announcement of three new Cabinet Ministers, "I have always been on the prime minister's side, since all the issues I proposed proved to be for the benefit of the people. And I will continue to be on the Prime Minister's side.”

So why this sudden volte-face? He has obviously been under tremendous pressure and has not handled the latest episode well. Handing a PBS (National TV station) reporter a secondary school report showing he was an excellent student, while refusing to comment is not in keeping with the behaviour of a man who has demonstrated remarkable ability in getting government to act on some of the affairs it had done nothing about.

There is no doubt that Debono has put a lot of work into justice reform and where it not for his consistent (not exactly sniping) threats, I am sure we would not have seen the changes, cosmetic as they are, we got on Friday.

What, in my opinion, broke the camel’s back for Debono, to the point of even calling the government “evil”, was when the newly appointed minister for that portfolio, Chris Said sent him a message, “telling me he wanted to seek my advice on reforms in the justice sector.”

Debono had originally said that he would withdraw his support for the government in parliament unless the ministerial responsibilities for justice and for home affairs are split, which, he had stressed, should logically be accompanied by legislative reform, and fundamental reforms.

He said that while the PM had declared his readiness to consider splitting the Home Affairs and Justice portfolios, there had not been agreement on which of the legislative reforms Debono had proposed would be carried out.

He claimed that the split in ministerial responsibilities should not only resolve the inherent conflict of interest between the two sectors but also herald the important reforms.

Before the PM’s new ministerial appointments on Friday, Debono defended himself from attacks of not being part of the PN team, “Let us not forget that the Criminal Justice Bill was recently presented in parliament behind the back of the parliamentary group, which was not informed about it. Where is the team spirit? Whoever demands team spirit should first show it himself,” he told The Times.

Asked whether he would accept a Cabinet post if it was offered to him, he said that such matters were the “absolute and exclusive” prerogative of the prime minister.

“I would take the decision when and if a request is made. But I will surely and definitely, in any case, not accept and will renounce to the raise in Cabinet remuneration since I do not agree with the way it was introduced behind Parliament’s back”, he said adding that this had not respected the dignity of Parliament.

The PM also rescinded the ministerial raise decided in 2008 in his Friday announcement.

"If someone is holding the prime minister hostage, that is surely not me. I really hope the prime minister is not being held hostage by a clique close to him, by individuals who think they can bully others, or by people who are offering protection by operating some network of terror, nurtured by inadequate press laws”, he told The Times (Malta).

I really would like to know more about this “network of terror, nurtured by inadequate press laws.” I tried to contact Dr Debono but have not had a response by the time I submitted this article.

He was not offered the Justice portfolio and all hell was let loose. Despite giving Debono credit for getting a slumbering, secretive government to make some small shifts, there are things that he needs to clarify.

He really needs to explain why he was prepared to put up with the “oligarchy” before Friday and he needs to be more specific about the PM’s “clique” and what they are up to.

He is, however, correct in his criticism that “errant ministers were not made to pay for their mistakes.” He picked out Austin Gatt, the minister responsible for the botched public transform reform, Joseph Cassar, who, Debono claimed abandoned plans for primary health care reform, and Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, who was responsible for the justice and home affairs portfolios.

Yet, he left out Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Tonio Borg who was responsible for the prison when drugs sales were aided and abetted by the Corradino authorities and who ignored the Prison Board’s warnings on the situation at the time.

Main gist Published in The Malta Independent on Sunday with the title "Hell has no fury not only when women are spurned"

Read More