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brought in my youngest child very weak and unable to walk, while the older one ran a very high temperature.

In the time it took my husband to tell me, how my little boy had been stooling all day, how the teachers claimed that the school nurse had not been around so they had been pouring water on him with his clothes on! (Yes you read that right! His school uniform right down to his socks and sandals were soaked!), my son had stooled three times with just water being passed out!

We got to the hospital in less than fifteen minutes! Alhamdullillah;m; praise be to God; he survived it but had to stay at home for more than five days. On the day before, he was to resume school, I had a strange conversation with him.

Me: "Alhamdulillah! You'll be able to go to school tomorrow, inshaAllaah
My Son: "I don't want to go to school again!" (After a long silence)
Me: "But why don't you want to go to school?"
My Son: "Because my teacher will slap me for pooing in my shorts" (with a sad look)
Me: "Did she slap you before?"
My Son: "Yes she slapped me, and it hurt but I did not cry!"

Can you imagine my shock and horror that a teacher would slap a little child who had diarrhea and couldn't control himself?

It was bad enough that they carelessly watched the boy stool his guts out, until he became so weak and dehydrated he could hardly stand, pouring water on him with clothes and shoes on!

It was just too much for us to swallow. My husband took up the matter with the school authorities, who didn't do anything about the situation until the teacher in question, walked right into our net.

It was an encounter that will probably give the woman, sleepless nights days after! But that is a story for another day!

We also found out that the same teacher had made up a name for my son, 'Olodo', slang for someone who was dull in the head!

One afternoon as my son and I did his homework together, my son just simply refused to some of the homework. He would not even try, he said he could not do his homework, because his teacher had said he could not do it, he was an 'Olodo' so that meant he could not!

It took the Mercy of Allaah, a lot of patience and several days of loving reassurances, before I could get my son to believe in himself again!

Let me just say here that, my husband and I are not careless parents, we spend al lot time with the children and engage them in the things that will inshaAllaah teach and build their faith, make them knowledgeable and able to relate with the people and the world around them and essentially try to make them good people!

We took time to pick the school and look what happened to us despite everything? This happened us the caring parents, what fate lies lurking for those children, in the name of 'school' for parents, who don't bother?

One very important lesson I learnt from this horrifying incident, is that you have to talk to your child, listen to him and communicate.

Don't just shut them up because they are stopping you from watching that interesting programme on TV, or breaking into that interesting gossip with 'Mrs Somebody'!

They see and they understand more than we imagine.

That 'harmless' 'My teacher said this my friend did that' could actually be a cry for help and not just silly chatter!

Learn more about this author, Summayyah Sadiq-Ojibara.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

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