STORY of a female student being assaulted by a staff of the Solomon Islands National University (SINU) went viral on social media on Wednesday.
Social media commentators were scathing at the SINU staff’s alleged action.
The incident was said to be a result of an argument between the SINU staff’s daughter and the other girl.
The girls were both students of Panatina Community High School.
The story goes that after the argument, the SINU staff’s daughter went and reported the matter to her father.
On Tuesday, the father reportedly went to Panatina Community High School and slapped the other girl on the face outside the school fence.
The girl was taken to hospital, treated for facial injury, and later discharged.
The matter has since been reported to police and is now a police case.
Understandably, when someone posted the story on facebook the other day, the father became instant social media ridicule.
His alleged action was widely condemned, with calls for SINU to terminate his employment.
Bashing up someone, let alone a defenceless teenage girl, will never be accepted in today’s community.
It is primitive and cowardice of a man to hit a woman.
The father will have his day in court to defend his alleged action.
However, the manner in which he approached the situation was not only immature, but also outright criminal.
Parents are supposed to be peacemakers and demonstrate maturity when dealing with incidents involving teenagers.
The best way to approach a situation such as this is for the father to call the parents of the other girl, sit face to face with them, and talk about the problem.
If need be, invite the school principal to be part of the talks.
Taking the law into your own hands does not solve the problem one bit.
It only perpetuates it.
As society evolves and today’s younger generation faces more challenges, there will be more of cases like this coming up in our communities.
School authorities and parents will have to act mature and display restraint in dealing with cases of this nature.
Any irresponsible reaction to cases involving children will only bring further troubles than solving the problem at hand.
Let’s learn from this incident and avoid repeating it.
