Beautiful Beginning Academy Abuja has rejected claims of bullying incident at the school, labelling the viral video depicting a purported incident of bullying of a male student by his seniors as a “stage play”, rather than an act of aggression.
Speaking during a fact-finding visit by LEADERSHIP to the school, the Principal of the Academy, Aaron Ipke, explained that the students involved were simply engaging in a playful performance that was misunderstood as bullying.
He emphasised that the school operates with an open-door policy and has never recorded bullying in its 14 years of existence.
It would be recalled that an alleged case of bullying occurred a few days ago at Beautiful Beginning Academy, Apo, Abuja, where senior students allegedly subjected a junior student, Imtiyas, an SS2 students, to a brutal and dehumanising attack.
The incident reportedly saw Imtiyas being chained and assaulted by SS3 students. However, in response, the school expressed dissatisfaction with the accusations, claiming that the incident was acted and meant to tarnish the school’s reputation.
“Categorically, I will state that there was no bullying case here at BVA. There is no bullying case whatsoever. Whatever you saw, I will personally say that it was a make-believe, you know? So, there was no case of bullying.
“I will put it straight to you, and I can give you reasons. We were in school at the time. And the way we run our school, we operate an open-door policy. Students, even from nursery, come to the MD’s office, to the principal’s office, to express any concerns they might have.
“We don’t have that kind of bureaucracy. So, if there was any bullying at all, at least one student would have heard about it and reported it to us. But no such report was made until the sisters came on Monday to tell us there was a bullying case in the school. In fact, my MD was actually leaving that evening when they came. Out of curiosity, she asked, ‘Okay, what is this about?’ They said it was a bullying case, and she was shocked, just like the rest of us.
“Then she called, ‘Okay, what happened?’ They showed us a video. We were like, ‘Bullied? This kind of thing happened? How? When? Where?’ You know, those are the questions, because it’s quite unusual. In 14 years of existence, we’ve never had a situation like this, or a case of this nature,” the principal explained.
“It wasn’t a case of bullying. They staged a play. Interestingly, they did it in their hostel, and there were other students around watching.
“So, if it was bullying, are you telling me that those other students watched this ‘play’ and none of them came to report it to us? That in itself proves it was a play. The students did it innocently, though perhaps taken to a certain level. Interestingly, let me tell you, the students actually arranged for the tablet they used to record it. The tablet is usually given to them during learning hours and later retrieved,” he added.
According to the principal, the students took advantage of the device to record the incident. “If you see the recording, it’s beyond what you might expect. It was a playful performance, not bullying. The students even arranged for the boy to record it. Afterward, he quickly took the tablet back from the student, and if you look at the picture, you can see how he was smiling at the teacher.”
He further explained that there were other photos and posts that further indicated the nature of the event. “It was like watching Spartacus. The boy quickly took the tablet, sent the picture to his Snapchat account, and deleted it from the student’s account.”
“He also sent it to his brother, who thanked him for the message. When we pieced everything together, we realised that when the sisters came, they insisted that the children involved should be expelled.”
The principal added that the other video of the boy lying sick beside was an old video that had been circulated to mislead the public.
“The students admitted that it was an old video. They said the boy was sick, and then they said he had travelled first to Gombe, then to Benue. The three sisters who came here, I’ve called them several times, but they haven’t picked up.
“Suddenly, the same person who had two brothers at the police station was now demanding compensation and hospital bills. When we asked if the boy was injured, he said no. The MD personally went upstairs, packed his bags, and came down by himself.”
He added that the case was reported to the Ministry of Education, where the situation was explained in full. “So, from our side, I can categorically tell you that there was no case of bullying. The children were just having fun to a certain extent.”
