LA Ace

Have you ever been part of a group of people who were unkind to one or some individuals? What was the circumstance? How did you act? What did you feel?

In classes, or groups being allocated by someone else, there would often be one or two individuals who are being disliked by the rest, either because of their appearances or attitude towards others. I am always lucky to be not to be disliked or isolated by the rest of the class/group. I have always made it a point to behave appropriately whenever I am allocated to a group, and "blend" into the crowd and not be the odd one out.

I have been in groups/classes where one or two individuals are being disliked by the rest of the group members/classmates. But, a girl in my primary four class have been isolated and treated very unkindly that it was even considered bully by the discipline mistress. That is a case which I could remember very clearly, even up till now. During the first day of school, the girl, Amelia Ho, did something which caused the class to dislike her. She boasted to everyone that she was the only girl in the level who owns a phone. It was since she started boasting to everyone about her phone, we started to dislike her and started calling her names and sabotaging her.

The other boys gave her nasty names and created booby traps for her by quickly pouring water onto her seat when she was about to sit down, once and there was another time we tricked her into going to the general office to collect something from her mother, which turned out to be false, thus making a fool of herself. There was once, I did something very nasty to Amelia, which I regret. I told Amelia that the boys hid her belongings at the boys' toilet. On her way to retrieve her things, she was being ambushed by the boys and got handfuls of soil and trash thrown at her. I greatly regret my actions, coming to think of it, as I betrayed her trust she had for me as I did not disturb her directly.

The girls in the class were also very mean to her, by not inviting her to their parties and class gatherings. They often talked behind her back and complained to the teacher secretly about the rules Amelia flouted, even if the offence was very minor. Until one day, the discipline mistress made a visit to the class and gave us a very stern warning, that if we bullied Amelia further, the punishment would be very severe. The class were obviously very frightened, and we did not dare to disobey. However, the discipline mistress's visit deepened the hatred the class had for her but we stopped disturbing her directly. Instead, we laughed loudly and made fun of Amelia whenever she did something stupid. Some girls would also talk about the mistake Amelia had committed loudly when Amelia was in hearing range.

Then, the class goal was reached one day when we learnt that Amelia transferred to another school. The class cheered when the form teacher walked out of the classroom after reprimanding us for ill-treating her. Now, thinking back about what I did, I feel remorseful for what I done as I had hurt someone very deeply and for what she had done, by just merely boasting, she does not deserve this type of treatment from us.