By Kim Bo-eun
The lights on the stage went out and as a spotlight shone on the bully, he went into his monologue.
“I couldn’t tell anyone at my new school about what had happened at the schools I previously went to. I couldn’t tell them that I had transferred four times because I had been bullied,” the student said in a grave voice.
“I couldn’t tell them that I had become a bully at this school because I didn’t want to be bullied anymore,” he continued.
The audience of some 500 students applauded enthusiastically as the lights came back on and the actors from Daekyeong Middle School stepped forward to take a bow.
It was the last scene from the first of five plays that were performed on the topic of school bullying by middle school students at Jung-gu Community Center on Sept. 6.
The Jung-gu Office in central Seoul invited schools in the district to participate, as a measure to have students realize through acting in the plays and watching them what it feels like to be the victim, and to ultimately prevent bullying at schools.
The plays that the students had written, planned and directed themselves showed bullying from their own perspective. Depictions of bullying were very real, and students acted earnestly.
“You’re going to give me 30,000 won tomorrow, including the interest for being late,” demanded a bully. “Get up before I stamp on your face,” yelled another to a victim who had fallen to the ground after suffering a blow.
The act of bullying in the plays included physical assaults, ordering the victim to buy food or cigarettes, and stealing their money.
The bullies had various reasons for the way they behaved, all of which seemed highly likely in reality. One started picking on other students to protect himself from being bullied. Another of them bullied others because she had poor grades and didn’t want others to look down on her.
Students from Kum-ho Girls’ Middle School played the role of the latter. “Do you think we’ll even be able to go to college?” said one of the bullies to another. “I don’t want to live this way — let’s try to start studying.”
The bullies in the play envied regular students who worked hard and had a shot at entering a good university.
And it seemed that the students who created the plays understood the fundamental motives for bullying — weakness, insecurity and fear.
The plays also addressed the issue of students remaining silent about witnessed bullying. The play by students of Jangwon Middle School was narrated by a school girl whose best friend was being bullied. She, however, had not been able to tell about it for fear of retaliation.
She finally musters the courage to take a video of a scene where her friend is being beaten up by the bullies and hands it over to a teacher. Although there was no happy ending, the play compellingly depicted the cold reality of violence taking place at schools.
Participants in the plays seemed to believe the event had brought about some positive change.
“I think it was meaningful that for the team from my school, there were actually students who had been involved in bullying,” said Jo Anna, a second-year student at Jangwon Middle School, who played the role of a bully.
“I didn’t like them at first, and we had trouble getting along when we started preparing for the play. But as we practiced together, I came to realize that these students had their own reasons for acting the way they did, such as family troubles. We ended up becoming friends.”
The student audience attentively watched the scenes unfold, at times holding their breaths when the victim was being assaulted. They seemed to engage more as the scenes in the play were familiar to them.
“I think I was able to empathize with the victim,” said Noh Gang-pyo, a first-year student at Hangyang Middle School who watched the plays.
Although the effects of the one-time performance will inevitably be limited, one of the teachers raised an interesting point.
“The students are very enthusiastic when it comes to participating in activities other than studying,” said Choi Hee-sun, a physical education teacher at Jangwon Middle School. “Because the students are under a lot of stress due to their studies, these types of extra-curricular activities provide an effective outlet for the students.”
Officials at the Jung-gu Office also expressed satisfaction.
“Seeing the students watch attentively made me think that hosting the plays was worthwhile,” said Ku sun-wan, head of the education support section. “We plan to continue the program and hope that through it students will be able to become more considerate toward one another.”