Talk up when you are being bullied

May Pen Academy fifth-former Ashanti Copeland is imploring students who suffer at the hands of bullies to talk up, seek help and not take matters into their own hands. She said she paid a high price for not coming to that realisation earlier in life.

The former student of a prominent high school in Clarendon said she first started being bullied as a first-former, and told her teacher about it, but nothing changed.

She never spoke about it again, except to her sister, until one evening when four girls attacked her in front of the May Pen Courthouse and she fought back.

"I used a seam ripper (used to pull out stitches in clothes) and hit one of the girls. It penetrated her head and she was rushed to the hospital," related Copeland. After meeting with the principal and vice-principal, Copeland was suspended for 10 days. On the final day of her suspension, she said her mother got a call from the school advising that it would be better if she attended another school.

"To me it was unfair, as I was attacked and was only defending myself," Copeland said.

Because of the constant bullying at her former school, Copeland said her grades suffered. However, at May Pen Academy, there are more friendly students and teachers, and a principal who sees to her well-being. This, she said, was all she needed to thrive, and that saw her grades picking up to the point where she is now satisfied with her performance.

Copeland said she has learnt one valuable lesson from her bad experience, and that is, it's sometimes best to walk away from a heated situation and not give in to anger.

It's a lesson she doesn't miss an opportunity to teach her friends at school as she said, when she sees them engaged in heated arguments, she makes sure it doesn't go any further.

"In hindsight, I regret not talking up about what I was going through. Maybe the physical altercation might not have happened," she said.

With her past behind her, Copeland is looking forward to sitting her Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate exam and beginning her journey to being a radiographer.