The Tribune

By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

TWO boys at the centre of a viral bullying incident at CH Reeves have reconciled and are now working side by side in the same summer employment programme following an intervention involving their families, police and Families of All Murder Victims.

The video, widely circulated on social media recently showed a 13-year-old boy surrounded by students who repeatedly urged another boy to attack him. The teenager insisted he did not want to fight before eventually running from the group.

FOAM founder and president Khandi Gibson said the boys and their parents met at the Grove Police Station yesterday, where a conflict-resolution effort was arranged with the support of senior officers.

The teenager seen trying to avoid the confrontation subsequently asked Ms Gibson to offer the other boy a place alongside him in FOAM’s “Our Community Matters” junior workforce programme.

“The funniest thing about it is, the little boy who was actually getting bullied - and he still called him his friend — he said ‘Ms Gibson, you can't give my friend a job where I work at FOAM too?’” Ms Gibson said.

“I am saying to myself, this boy just try fight him and he had to beak off running and he asking for a job for him.”

Ms Gibson accepted the request. Both boys are now receiving hands-on workplace experience, a weekly stipend and lunch through the programme.

“You should see those two working together today. They're like nothing ever happened,” she said.

The boys answer telephone calls, greet customers and assist with other tasks at FOAM’s headquarters.

Ms Gibson said the incident demonstrated the capacity of children to forgive and the value of intervening before disputes escalate.

“I said that's why the Bible tells us, unless we become as these little ones, we can't enter the kingdom of God, because little children are forgiving,” she said.

Ms Gibson became involved after seeing the video online and asking the public to help her contact the teenager’s family.

“I was disturbed about the video, and I asked if anybody knew this young man's parents to please have them reach out to me because I would like to personally get him ready for school,” she said.

“We have other people who saw the video and didn't do anything. But God just tell me, ‘Man, I have to step in. I can't be seeing something like that and don't intervene.’”

After several people provided contact information, Ms Gibson reached out to Genal Bodie, the boy’s mother, on Saturday night and met the family the following morning.

She offered the teenager a place in one of FOAM’s two summer youth initiatives.

One is a summer camp featuring arts and crafts, Mathematics, English, gardening, field trips and guest speakers. The other is the junior workforce programme, where participants work from 10.30am to 2pm.

The teenager chose the workforce programme.

Later that Sunday, Lorenzo, the father of the other boy involved in the confrontation, contacted Ms Gibson. She learnt that Ms Bodie had gone to the Grove Police Station and proposed a joint meeting involving both families.

“I said I want to have a joint meeting at the Grove Police Station because these are young boys,” Ms Gibson said. “I don't want them to throw their life down the drain. We just ned to come and have a meeting.”

Senior officers at the station assisted with the meeting, which brought together the boys and their parents in an effort to resolve the conflict.

The other boy’s father agreed to the employment arrangement and took his son to FOAM’s headquarters yesterday morning.

Ms Gibson said the pair worked together despite the hostility captured in the video only days earlier.

She gave special thanks to the Grove Police Station’s senior team, led by Chief Superintendent Christlyn Skippings, for accommodating the meeting and allowing her to lead the conflict-resolution effort.

Ms Gibson said police indicated that they intended to identify the other boys seen in the recording and arrange another roundtable meeting with their families.

Ms Gibson said she hoped the intervention would become an example of how communities can confront conflict before it worsens.

“Let's start the trend somewhere,” she said.