COMMENT The frequent occurrences of school bullying have to be nipped at the bud.

It is the responsibility of both the school and the parents to stop bullies from being a nuisance to society. The reason for the rise in the number of cases of school bullying is because of the failure of both parties to discipline the child.

There is a saying, “Melentur aur biarlah dari rebung” (good behaviours are formed in early childhood).

Bad behaviours need to be dealt with

Suspension from school even for one year, as suggested by Education Minister Mahdzir Khalid, is not the solution. The late Yong Chee Seng, who was principal of Methodist Boys’ School Kuala Lumpur, once said, “If we have a naughty boy, we try to keep him in school. At least, he is still under our influence to turn him into being a good citizen.”

Discipline is the key in dealing with school bullies. Punishment has to be accompanied by proper counselling.

It is a major disaster in a particular country where a Malaysian couple was recently sent to jail for caning their own children. We are reminded that the father who spares his rod does not love the child enough to chastise him of his wrong from young.

The government should never have interfered with the parents’ right to discipline their children, so long as they are not subject to abusive parental behaviours.

Instead, the government should provide facilities for the rehabilitation of school bullies. School bullies have to be quarantined like any infectious disease.

According to the principal of a girls’ school in the Klang Valley, both counselling and rehabilitation in a special facility, away from other students, will help these bullies turn over a new leaf. Her priority is to address the safety of other students first.

Another friend in my chat group agreed with the suggestion. “To curtail extreme cases of bullying, and to ensure that it is effective, it has to be done by isolating the bullies from the majority of the students. You can’t change the bully overnight!” he exclaimed.

“The important thing is to get them out of the mainstream education and put them together for rehabilitation. Do we have a choice? Both of us would sincerely want the bullies to change overnight and be absorbed into the schools once again... but we know it is not possible, as much as we want it on paper.”