THE schoolboys who were videotaped bullying another are to appear before the board of management of their school today with their parents.
The principal of the rural secondary school told the MIDWEEK?NATION yesterday that the board would decide what disciplinary action to take.
The incident was brought to national attention earlier this month when the video was posted on Facebook.
It shows a teenage boy being forced by his peers to clean a shoe. Having failed to satisfy his colleagues with how he has done the task, he is threatened with a stick and further ordered to go to a standpipe, wet a piece of sponge and use it to clean the shoe.
It happened by a bus shelter just outside the school, and, according to the principal, it took place sometime in February. The school head said two of the students were identified from the video and two others were pointed out as the ones videotaping.
They have all been on suspension since the tape was released.
The principal said, that management, upon viewing the tape, had conducted interviews with all of the children involved in the presence of their parents and a guidance counsellor. He said counselling was also provided for other students of the school.
In addition, he said, the Parent-Teacher Association was updated on the matter, and an official of the National Task Force On Crime had been invited to address a meeting last Saturday on bullying and other matters.
The principal, lamenting that the school’s image had been tarnished by the incident, said he was also not pleased with how the matter had been handled by another section of the media.
“I?think it was unfairly treated by that organization. They have really been the bullies, because they showed the video up to last week when the minister was speaking about something that was totally unrelated.
“Students have just sat the 11-Plus Examination, and we don’t want them to come here in fear. It was irresponsible to do that to those children,” he stated.
He said while the school had been affected by the episode it was not the only school on the island dealing with bullying.
“We are working to stamp it out,” he stressed.