The subject of child abuse in schools is certainly not new and has led to discourses in the areas of violence against children, corporal punishment, gender-based violence, bullying, child sexual abuse and child neglect, just to name a few. It is widely acknowledged that children are exposed to abuse when their safety and well-being are not prioritized by individuals who are supposed to provide care for them. This non-prioritization has been attributed to actions or inactions of parents or caregivers that lead to situations of child endangerment, harm, or death.

Schools are places where children are exposed to pedagogy for education, instruction and assessment in such a way that they are stimulated and encouraged to learn, build on existing knowledge and improve their skills so that their learning outcomes are aligned with school curriculum objectives and by extension, their wholesome integration into the society.

Schools generally achieve these objectives on the platforms of child wellbeing and safety. Unfortunately, the welfare of children becomes jeopardized when schools become breeding grounds that engender and tolerate child maltreatment. Sadly, children who are repeatedly mistreated at school will not only show emotional and physical signs of being abused but may lose and never recoup learning, become deficient in life skills and struggle in their bid to be properly integrated into communities. In addition to these consequences are the extra demands on healthcare, cultural, religious and criminal justice systems which grapple with morbidity and mortality, mental instability, substance abuse, violent and criminal behaviours exhibited by all categories of child abuse victims.

The appalling accounts of children who have been victims of abuse at schools have continued to make the rounds. Children who are abused at schools typically experience exploitation physically, emotionally, sexually and neglectfully. The 2021 report prepared for “The Office of the Federal Ombudsman” for victims of crime titled “Compensating Crime Victims” highlights four categories of victims in abusive situations. These are the direct victim that is, the child who was assaulted, tortured, injured or killed; the indirect victim that is, the person who by reason of an existing relationship with the abused child suffers; the secondary victim that is, a person who suffers harm as a result of intervening to assist the direct victim and tertiary victims, who are people in the community.

The persistence of child abuse discussions in schools has made it imperative to examine issues of culpability, compensation and prevention initiatives. With respect to culpability, fellow students, teachers, school support staff and school administrators have been identified as abusers. Abuse from fellow students commonly comes through bullying in all its forms. Abuse from teachers and school support staff, on its part, may be fueled by hegemony and in other cases, defective behaviour-regulation tools. For instance, the use of corrective interventions tainted with aggression or bad blood. Abuse from school administrators would often entail failure to report suspicions of child abuse, the non-prioritization of staff and student training on child abuse matters and weak commitment to promulgating school policies and procedures that mitigate child abuse occurrences. Compensation on its part is a vital aspect in helping child abuse victims heal, cope, and eventually thrive. It is usually financial in nature and covers the costs of victimization.

Compensation is meant for any grievous injury that is suffered personally by victims and will cater for expenses incurred in hospital treatments and counselling, among others. For child abuse victims to easily access compensation, reporting the abuse, immediately it is identified, to the appropriate authorities and filing a Child Abuse Lawsuit, must be ensured. This is also important for the swift collection and preservation of pieces of evidence needed for the prosecution of culprits. Furthermore, immediate reporting helps guide parents and caregivers on precautions, needed actions, and expectations as they pertain to the child abuse cases, including likely outcomes of compensation.

Therefore, schools as a matter of priority, must come up with prevention initiatives through the implementation of programs and activities that curb all forms of child abuse. However, drawing up these programs might be challenging or unattainable for school administrators if they are not objective-based. According to the 2021 article titled “Effective Components of School-Based Prevention Programs for Child Abuse: A Meta-Physical Analytic Review” from the “Clinical Child and Family Psychology Journal”, any program or activity directed at preventing child abuse within a school should increase children’s knowledge about child abuse, increase their self-protection skills and make available and accessible channels to disclose abuse.

Knowledge of child abuse should encapsulate its various forms, grooming mechanisms, safe touches, unsafe touches, and unhealthy secrets, including self-awareness of one’s body and the responsibility to protect it from abusive situations. Self-Protection skills will cover tactics that limit exposure to abusive situations or prevent them from escalating. These include teaching children to be assertive, using their voices when they need help and being more observant of their surroundings, in case, there is need to make an escape. The channels for the disclosure of abuse should be incorporated into the school system and consistently communicated to learners. These channels and the staff in charge of them should guarantee maximum safety and professionalism for the children using them.

For schools to achieve these objectives, their staff play a crucial role. For starters, the recruitment processes of schools should particularly consider experience in handling child abuse cases. The onboarding process, likewise, should incorporate child abuse awareness, the training to mitigate it, and the dissemination of information on school processes in place to address it. Staff Performance Appraisal should equally make provisions for measuring staff compliance with these processes. School management should not forget to provide staff with needed human resource support to help facilitate their contribution to and embrace of school initiatives that prevent child abuse.

Bidemi Nelson
Shield of Innocence Initiative
www.gfesl.com
Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.