When a bully gets bullied

My heart goes out to the Ateneo bully whose name  got included in the day’s headlines and reaped widespread public condemnation, as if he had done away with both his parents.

He will forever be scarred by such a public castigation, for an act of unthinking child behavior that cannot be helped as part of growing up.

I myself remember being bullied as a child and, in fact, as the runt of a pack, I did some bullying myself just to get the other boys off my back.

The media are guilty of leading the posse that seemed too eager for the public hanging of a child.

Outlawed from public and private schools, what is the 14-year-old boy to do? Go on a lifetime of penance or embark on a life of crime?

RAMON LOPEZ, ramonandpilar@gmail.com