Creative writing submission from the Rest Less community – submit your entry here.
Sasha Tackles A Bully
On one of her escapades, Sasha packed up their stuff, sold her house in Europe, picked up her eleven-year old son and jetted off for a well deserved sabbatical to the French Caribbean. Neither of them spoke French, except for school French like “Je m’appelle Sasha”. This was going to be an adventure of a lifetime for both of them.
Sasha’s son, Kieran is one of those blessings. He is so flexible, adaptable and never complains. He settled in nicely into life on the island and his new school. He took intense French Lessons to bring him up to speed with the other French students. He excelled at the task and was speaking fluent French in no time.
Sasha goes to pick him up after school every day and Kieran always had a funny story to tell her about school, the students and teachers. He told the stories in French, with a lot of animation, which Sasha found so amusing. He then interpreted in English for her better comprehension.
He mentioned a naughty girl, called Kara, who was very disruptive in class. Even her Teacher found it difficult to manage her. Kara would stroll into the class, go row by row and swipe books, or pens, or paper or anything off the desks of the students, on to the floor. She did this on a regular basis. The students just quietly picked their stuff off the floor. Her teacher reprimanded her every now and again, but she still does it again and again. For some reason, she never did that to Kieran. I guess it was for the fact that Kieran was new to the school, so she was biding her time to study him.
As she never touched Kieran’s stuff nor violated his space, Kieran simply observed her and re-capped her misdemeanours to Sasha in a funny way that made them both laugh. Sasha advised him that if Kara ever touched him or his stuff, he should tell her firmly to stop it and report her to the Principal.
On this beautiful day, Sasha went to pick Kieran up from school and noticed that he was not his usual jolly self. Sasha asked him why he had a sullen face. As they were walking towards the car, just outside the School Gates, Kieran told Sasha what happened. He said his pencil had fallen out of his bag and Kara was passing by at that time. Rather than Kara pick the pencil off the floor for him, if she could or wanted to, or just let it be, she chose to stump on his pencil and smashed it to pieces.
The Tigress in Sasha emerged. How dare anyone upset her son? How dare anyone damage her son’s property?
Sasha swung around from the school gates and went back into the school. Most of the children were out of the classes and in the school courtyard, waiting to be picked up by their parents or guardian.
Sasha asked Kieran who Kara was. Kieran pointed at a couple of girls standing by the stairs near one of the classrooms. Sasha marched over and took one of the girls by the hand. Kieran quickly signalled to his Mum to say, not that girl, the other girl. Sasha dropped her hand and took the other girl, Kara’s hand and walked her to the middle of the school courtyard, where everyone could see them both.
The school had classes on three floors on three sides of the building, enclosing the courtyard. Most of the students were out of their classes, standing in the corridors, looking out for their parents or guardians to pick them up.
On seeing Kara in the middle of the courtyard with a strange, unusual looking lady, more of the students came out of their classes out of curiosity, to see what was going on.
Standing in the middle of the courtyard, in broken French, Sasha asked Kara why she stepped on Kieran’s pencil? She waved her finger at her telling her that what she did was nasty. “Pas bon, pas bon!” (Not good, not good), Sasha repeated. She told Kara that she was going to report her to the Principal and pointed to the Principal’s office which was on the topmost floor at the end of one of the corridors.
As she pointed, all eyes in the courtyard, including Kara’s and all the students and teachers on the three floors and on the three lengths of the corridors, followed Sasha’s pointed finger.
More and more students and teachers had come out to linger on the corridors to watch the drama of Kara being ticked off by this strange, unusual looking foreign lady.
Kara felt embarrassed and wished she could disappear from all the disappointing and ‘serve you right’ looks from her schoolmates and teachers.
Sasha asked Kara for her Mother’s name and phone number. She told Kara she was going to report her to her Mother.
Kara looked solemn. This was an unusual sight. This girl, who terrorized the children and the teachers, stood in the middle of the school courtyard, with the whole school watching, became as meek as a lamb.
Sasha dismissed her and told her never to touch any of Kieran’s stuff ever again and to be a good girl. Kara walked back towards her friend, whilst Sasha walked towards the gate. She looked around for Kieran, who was heading towards the car, pretending not to know Sasha. What’s new?
On getting to the car, being a typical youngster, Kieran felt embarrassed at his Mum showing up a kid in his school and banned Sasha from ever coming into his school again — Oh dear!
That’s the thanks Sasha gets for defending his honour.
Sasha brought her son up to be a perfect gentleman, but definitely not a pushover. She reminded him that if anyone crossed their boundaries into his space, he should tell them firmly to get out of his space and warn them never to cross into his boundaries ever again. He should let them know that if they crossed the line, he would report them to the Principal or any relevant authority.
Luckily, Kieran is a well liked person, so people very, very rarely misbehave with him. People go out of their way to seek his favour, approval and to protect him.
A few weeks later, Sasha had to go into Kieran’s school to see his Teacher. Kieran permitted her to come into his school. As Sasha walked through the gates, across the courtyard, heading towards the stairs to Kieran’s class, this young lady ran over and gave Sasha a big, bear hug. Sasha almost fell backward and had to steady herself.
“Salut Tati!” (Hello Aunty), the young girl shouted. Sasha looked up at Kieran with a questioning look.
Kieran mouthed at her, “That’s’ Kara”.
“Aaaaaaaaa, salut Kara. Comment tu vas?” (“Hello Kara. How are you?”), Sasha replied and hugged Kara back.
Sasha was genuinely shocked at the embrace. They exchanged pleasantries in broken French and English. Sasha asked if she was being a good girl. Kara responded in the affirmative with a big smile on her face. ‘I’m very happy to hear that’, she told Kara.
Sasha asked Kara to say hello to her Mum, to work smart in school, and to be kind to everyone.
After that telling off by a complete stranger, in front of the whole school, Kara, the terror student, became a model student and a changed human being.
Bullies must be stopped in their tracks.
Deal with the bully. Deal with the authorities e.g. teacher, principal, boss etc . Deal with the parents. Whatever the case, do something. Do not let it lie.
Protect your loved ones.
Protect all children.
Protect the vulnerable.
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