Dear Editor, It has long been accepted that our school system is a microcosm of the wider society, and there are some uncomfortable realities that we can no longer afford to ignore.

The recent video involving a Kingston College (KC) student being held over a railing by fellow students before falling has once again brought bullying, violence, and student safety into the national conversation.

The boys’ school, through its principal, Dave Myrie, has confirmed that it is investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident and has appealed to the public to stop circulating the video because of concerns about the privacy, dignity, and welfare of the students involved.

The school has also stated that, thankfully, no student was injured. The student’s mother has also spoken publicly about the incident, raising concerns about her son’s treatment and alleging that he had been bullied.

While the circumstances of this particular incident remain subject to investigation, it should prompt us to examine a much broader question: Does Jamaica have a culture that normalises bullying, intimidation, and aggression? Available evidence indicates that bullying is not an isolated problem within our schools.

A national study commissioned by the Child Development Agency and supported by UNICEF, published in 2015, found that approximately 60 to 65 per cent of Jamaican students had experienced bullying at some point.

Almost 30 per cent of students reported being afraid to attend school because of bullying, while nine out of every 10 students had witnessed another child being bullied. UNICEF subsequently described bullying as a prevalent problem in Jamaica.

These findings are not recent, but their significance has not diminished. They should cause us to look more carefully at the environment in which children are being raised and the behaviour they observe long before they enter the classroom.

It is, therefore, unfair to place the entire burden on schools. Undoubtedly, schools have a clear responsibility to provide safe, disciplined, and supportive environments, and they must investigate reports of bullying and take appropriate action.

However, schools do not operate in isolation, they receive children from homes and communities where attitudes towards authority, conflict, discipline, and aggression have already begun to develop.

Consider, for example, the way some children are disciplined. UNICEF reports that approximately 76 per cent of Jamaican children between one and 14 years experienced violent discipline, including physical punishment or psychological aggression.

Its reporting on the 2023 Violence Against Children and Youth Survey also found that more than three in four Jamaican children and youth had experienced some form of violence during their lifetime.

UNICEF has specifically called for changes to cultural norms that allow violence against children to persist. This does not mean that violent discipline automatically produces a child who becomes a bully. Such a conclusion would be too simplistic.

However, it does raise legitimate questions about what children learn when intimidation, humiliation, physical force, and fear are sometimes used as tools for controlling behaviour. Some children grow up hearing messages that can easily become distorted.

They may be told not to allow anyone to “walk over” them; to fight back at all costs; or that it is better to be the person doing the intimidating than the person being intimidated. Without proper guidance, such messages can become a belief that strength means overpowering someone else.

This is why bullying should not be understood only as physical violence. It can involve repeated insults, humiliation, exclusion, threats, intimidation, harassment, and the deliberate targeting of someone perceived to be weaker or different.

With social media, these behaviours can also move beyond the school compound and continue online, where humiliation can reach a much larger audience — cyberbullying.

Our responsibility as adults is, therefore, not simply to tell children that bullying is wrong, we must examine the behaviour we model for them. Intimidation exists throughout society.

Some employees experience bullying from supervisors, some workers intimidate colleagues, and some individuals use their social, economic, or professional positions to exert inappropriate power over others.

In communities, disagreements can quickly become confrontational, while in some families, aggression is still viewed as an acceptable way to establish authority. What is particularly concerning is how often such behaviour is ignored or redefined.

A person who is loud, aggressive, and intimidating may be described as “strong-minded”. Someone who refuses to respect rules may be praised for being “tallawah”. A person who dominates others may be described as “bold”.

While confidence, assertiveness, and resilience are positive qualities, they should never be confused with intimidation, disrespect, or an unwillingness to respect boundaries. Even our public discourse deserves reflection.

Political and social disagreements can sometimes become unnecessarily personal, with individuals attempting to discredit or humiliate those with whom they disagree. Children and young people are watching these interactions, and we should be mindful of the lessons they take from what adults consider acceptable behaviour.

This is not an argument for placing the blame on parents, schools, or any single institution. It is an argument for recognising that responsibility is shared. Schools must strengthen their systems for reporting, investigating, and addressing bullying.

Parents must reinforce respect, empathy, self-control, and responsible conflict resolution at home. Communities must become less tolerant of intimidation and violence, while social media users must recognise that recording and circulating incidents involving children can cause additional harm.

The Ministry of Education, school boards, guidance personnel, and other stakeholders must also continue strengthening prevention and intervention measures.

At the same time, accountability matters. Children who bully others should not simply be labelled and discarded. Their behaviour must have consequences, but they should also receive appropriate intervention to understand the impact of their actions and develop healthier ways of relating to others.

Equally, children who are targeted must know that adults will take their concerns seriously and protect them from retaliation — at least, so we hope. The KC incident should, therefore, not become another matter that dominates social media for a few days and then disappears from public attention.

The investigation should establish the facts, and the students involved should be dealt with appropriately.

However, the national discussion should extend beyond one school and one incident.

Jamaica has enough evidence to show that bullying and violence affecting children are significant social concerns. The 2015 national bullying study found high levels of exposure to bullying in schools, while more recent national data demonstrate the broader prevalence of violence experienced by Jamaican children and youth.

We, therefore, need to be honest about the role of culture and social behaviour. If children repeatedly see intimidation being tolerated, aggression being celebrated, and disrespect being excused, we should not be surprised when some reproduce such behaviour among their peers.

The solution cannot be to blame schools whenever these incidents occur; nor can we simply respond after a video becomes public. If we genuinely want safer schools, we must address the attitudes and behaviour that children encounter at home, in communities, online, and throughout society.

Being “tallawah” should mean being resilient, courageous, and capable of standing up for what is right. It should never become a cultural justification for bullying, disrespect, rule-breaking, or intimidation. Ultimately, the question is not simply whether Jamaica has a bullying problem in its schools.

The more important question is whether aspects of our wider culture have allowed intimidation and aggression to become sufficiently normalised that some children reproduce them in school.

Addressing that problem will require schools to do their part, but it will also require parents, communities, institutions, and adults generally to examine what we model, what we tolerate and what we teach the next generation.

Ricardo E Smith is a senior educator and social scientist. Send comments to the Jamaica Obsserver or ricardo.professional.edu@gmail.com.