CARIMAC Times 2016: The JREAM Edition Journalists Reviving Awareness of what Matters | Page 21

just say anything; and then after that I will have
students coming to me and say, ‘Well, actually,
I feel very uncomfortable… and that they are
basically giving me a message in the class, in
terms of saying, ‘Well, you know, we know what
your sexual preference and we don’t like it.’ ”
A perception permeating parishes
Akilesh Johnson, 27, had to deal with the scourge
of bullying on the meager basis of perception
as it was plentiful in three schools he attended
across two parishes.
At the secondary level, he attended a private,
Christian, co-educational high school in the
parish of Portland. He told CARIMAC Times
that his earliest experience with bullying was
in the seventh grade, and it took the form of
physical intimidation. Students who were much
bigger made a habit of using insulting terms
instead of his name.
“They would call me ‘girly’, ‘sissy’, ‘b-man’,
and ‘faggot’. Sometimes I was afraid to use the
bathroom because the bigger boys would be
in there. At times, I [held my] urine to avoid
going into the male bathroom. I didn’t want
to go around there and they do something to
me,” Johnson said.
Throughout the next two years, he would be
reminded each day that he did not behave in
the way expected of males. Johnson said there
was no hesitation to let him know he was too
soft-spoken; the sentiment expressed was that
he spoke like a girl. The way he walked was
also up for scrutiny, as the boys at school often
confronted him on the basis of their perception
that he walked like a girl.

“I can remember when a guy who came from a
different school [transfer student] did something
in class, and the teacher asked who it was that
did the act. I wasn’t going to take the blame, so I
told the teacher who it was. He retaliated saying,
‘Dis [this] ya b-man ya come call up mi name.
Watch me and yuh [you] when school over.’”
Johnson explained with a sense of newfound
clarity, that this particular moment was
particularly devastating because he believed
the student would fulfil his threat.
“After I left school, he and his gang of friends
were waiting on me on the road. But because
I was walking with a group of girls, it kind of
shielded me.”
Johnson’s parents later became involved and
aware of his experiences.
He recalled, in a seeming nonchalant tone, that
for most of his time in high school there was
regular name-calling - giving the impression
that he thought it was usual.
He experienced near apathy toward what he saw
as a more latent form of bullying. To Johnson,
it was unfair to be treated differently because
he paid the same fees as others to occupy that
space.
“At one point, I did feel like I didn’t want to
go to school, because I felt tired of it [namecalling]; because at that time I didn’t identify
with what they would say. Why should I have
to feel different all the time?”
As he continued to explain, the discomfort he
felt back then, resided on his face once more.

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