Bullying is undoubtedly a prevalent issue in any school system in the world.
In Singapore, the topic has been thrust back into the forefront of public discussion when a Secondary 1 student from Admiralty Secondary School ended up in hospital after being hit by a metal water bottle.
The alleged bullying case occurred within just the four days of the new school year.
Source: Mr Goh on Facebook
The victim’s uncle claimed that the school downplayed the severity of the wound and thus, sought proper accountability.
Admiralty Secondary School stated that they had counselled the student involved and would carry out the necessary disciplinary actions.
Following the case, many Singaporeans began discussing their bullying experiences and how they felt schools handled it.
Some cases were so serious that they resulted in the victim’s suicide.
In a recent Answers.sg poll with 5,224 respondents, 27% — or slightly more than a quarter of voters — said they had experienced bullying in primary or secondary school.
72% of respondents said they had not, and about 2% were unsure.
4,518 people also voted on whether they felt bullying cases were handled appropriately.
While a majority of 83% were neutral on the matter, 16% voted no. Only 2% felt that the schools handled the cases properly.
For 24-year-old university student Gordon, who chose to use pseudonym, the bullying he faced happened in secondary school.
He suggested that perhaps he was an “easy target”, but still cannot be certain what caused it.
The bullies inflicted verbal and some physical abuse on Gordon and while he never felt like avoiding school, he said that it still damaged his self-esteem.
However, Gordon remarked that the bullying “could have been much worse”.
Several users on social media, for example, spoke about the severe effects bullying had on them.
One claimed they ended up with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from secondary school that still lingered.
Source: Reddit
Gordon added that he did not think schools handled bullying appropriately.
He brought up his own experiences, claiming that his all-boys school never took action.
The bullies usually ignored the staff when they were told to stop. On top of that, he said schools would have difficulty properly punishing perpetrators due to unreported cases.
In September 2024, an online video showed a Bukit View Secondary School student forcefully kicking another to the ground.
Source: sgfollowsall on Telegram
The bullying occurred nearly a year prior in October 2023 but went unreported despite the level of violence used.
Gordon offered what he thought would be a better solution: allowing victims to fight back.
Once you instil the fear of the victim in the bully, bullying can be stopped.
While the answer could be seen as extreme, several people online readily agreed. These netizens claimed that “only fighting back will help”.
Source: Reddit
Kuro, a newly enrolled university student, recalled being bullied in primary school. He told MS News that the bullies would start fights and steal his personal belongings.
Kuro said he got lucky as he had good friends who supported him throughout and that they found common ground in their experiences.
The bullies did pick on many of us which let [us] support and bond with each other.
The school never caught them in action since they only bullied other students when teachers weren’t around.
“Even if anyone were to report them, the teachers would simply take it as horsing around by children,” he further claimed.
Despite the lack of punishment in his experiences, Kuro believed that Singapore schools have gradually gotten better at handling bullying cases.
For Thomas, a 24-year-old working in engineering, the bullying he faced was a learning experience.
Thomas has autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which he said contributed to him being “outside” social norms.
He told MS News that in primary and secondary school, he was prone to overreacting and possessed poor anger management.
As a result, others in school teased and insulted him, even vandalising his things, just to get a rise out of him.
Source: Mikhail Nilov on Pexels, for illustration purposes only.
Thomas became more self-aware in his upper secondary years as the bullying went on.
“I just started to brush off certain statements as something minor and not worth caring about,” he said.
“[This] in turn reduced the number of people maliciously trying to go after me.”
As such, he took the bullying as a life lesson.
A netizen expressed a similar sentiment, describing their “mental scars” from bullying that lingered 20 years later.
They said that bullying caused issues but also helped them to become who they were now.
Source: Reddit
Thomas spoke positively about the school’s efforts to tackle the bullying, recalling teachers separating and handling involved students.
He added that because of his ASD, he spoke frequently with the school’s counsellors.
“They did a really good job in helping me understand how to deal with this better,” said Thomas.
However, he also acknowledged that others might not receive the same response from the school.
Thomas’ experiences at school aligned him with the 2% of people in the poll who felt the schools handled bullying appropriately.
When Thomas entered junior college (JC), bullying continued but in a slightly different form.
Thomas explained that JC students tended to be more independent and formed tighter friend ‘cliques’.
One such group picked on him and others with “persistent negative talk” and teasing that gradually built up over time.
He couldn’t discern any clear reasons behind their bullying, which continued even when their victims didn’t respond with anger.
Some people will just act in malice against anyone vulnerable that is outside their circle.
Thomas found this type of “soft” bullying more difficult to manage due to its subtlety, a trait that also made it hard to explain to a teacher.
In such cases, he said the school authorities would fall short.
In a parliamentary reply in October 2024, Singapore’s education ministry revealed that the average number of bullying cases have remained steady in the past five years.
It reported that there were two and six cases of bullying for every 1,000 students in primary and secondary schools respectively in a year.
Measures implemented by schools to combat bullying are preventive and disciplinary in nature.
For example, teachers are trained to create a positive classroom culture while schools have established peer support networks.
As for disciplinary actions, Singapore schools consider the severity of the bullying when deciding punishment.
Careless remarks will require teachers to mediate a common understanding between students.
Meanwhile, schools will work closely with authorities and parents for severe bullying cases involving fights.
Counsellors speaking to Channel NewsAsia (CNA) noted that parents play a key role in preventing and addressing bad behaviour by creating a healthy family environment and even going for family therapy.
Most experts, however, weighed in that both teachers and parents can work closer to address bullying.
Also read: Mother of bullied S’pore teen grieves daughter’s suicide, now advocates for youth mental health
Have news you must share? Get in touch with us via email at news@mustsharenews.com.
Featured image adapted from CraigRJD on Canva, for illustration purposes only, and Mr Goh on Facebook.
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