More bullying stories from Dowen college as an ex-female student who pleaded anonymity revealed how she was forced into a relationship with one of her seniors to save her kid brother who then just gained admission into the school from bullies.
She narrated to Vanguard that the senior asked her out when she was in Senior Secondary one but she turned deaf ears and when her kid brother was admitted the narrative changed.
According to her, the senior would bully and maltreat his brother who was innocent and never knew what was going on, to save her brother, she bowed to pressure.
On the late Sylvester Oromoni’s death, she said bullying in the school is not new but the deceased case was just at the extreme that attracted publicity.
The student who graduated in 2018 said: “ Late Sylvester’s case isn’t the first case of bullying in Dowen’s college. It has been ongoing. I suspect he was taken to the extreme.
“I was forced to go into a relationship with one SSS three boy who was a bully in 2017. This was because he always picked on my brother who was in JSS two.
“I bought expensive clothes and perfumes for one particular senior then. The first time he hit my brother who was in JSS one, I couldn’t challenge him because other senior students would gang up against me if I did. That had been the norm. The second time, he slammed my brother’s head against the wall. That caused him to fall sick and he was going in and out of the sickbay for three days.
“I summoned courage one afternoon and approached him. I begged him to stop bullying my brother who was my parents’ only son. He said I must get him a perfume first before he would consider my plea. I did. And all through SS two, I kept buying him perfumes and shirts until he graduated.
“The school was never aware such things were going on. And woe betides whoever went to report any case of bullying. It would be better for the child to leave school.
“But when I got to SSS three, I defended some Junior students against bullying. The strategy I used was to make them my school children.
“Victims bullied could easily be identified among their peers. They were usually withdrawn and lived in fear. They jostle at the slightest noise.
“These and other signs are what management of schools and parents should look out for.”
