Students are getting bullied under the GUC Administration Noses!!!

The following article was written in the GUC insider, all copyrights reserved to GUC insider 2013 , Posted on 21. Jan, 2013 by Khloud Khaled and Shaheer Shaheen in News under the headline 

GUC student bullied and attacked on campus for having a piercing

"Mohanad Kojak, a 28- Applied Arts freshman, was verbally and physically abused on campus earlier today by a group of seven engineering students for having a piercing around his ears.

Mohanad spoke to us about what happened in detail, describing how he insisted on not taking the matter on his own hand, but rather report it officially to the head of security at GUC. Furthermore, conveying a message by holding a banner alone in the middle of the platform area.

Sitting in the platform area, one guy asks him about what it is at his ears. When he said it was a piercing, one of them replied by asking where he got it.

“I want to make one too in my [private parts]” the guy said. “I told him to do whatever he wanted,” Mohanad replied, when one of the guy’s friends turned mad and started using an aggressive tone, asking him if he was from Egypt.

“I told him it’s none of his business,” then a big guy pushed the table at him while another one approached and slapped him on the face “with all his might”, as Mohanad describes, “the others just laughed at me.”

He went on that he could have called his brother and cousin and gathered people to beat them up but felt it’s more appropriate if he sought his rights in an official way. So he headed to Brigadier Aboul Enein’s office, the head of GUC security, and told him the story.

Two guards were sent back with him to bring in the three guys; the one who verbally abused him, the one who pushed the table at him and the one who slapped him.

“Typically, they claimed they haven’t done anything,” he added.

“After that I made a banner and wrote on it ‘I am free and I wish people would mind their own business,’ and held it at the platform area. Many kept on mocking me as they go. One of them even told me that I should be a man and go beat them up,” Mohanad went on.

At around 5pm, he was asked for at Aboul Enein’s office, where he was told of their desire to apologise. Mohanad refused their apologies and said “I’m sorry but I was insulted and humiliated in front of everyone and no one stood up for me. Please don’t make me regret dealing with this the decent way by coming to you.” Aboul Enein replied that he already made an official report on the incident.

Mohanad went on: “I believe I did the right thing by filing that report, however, I don’t think an apology is enough for me. I don’t understand why the head of security was pushing me towards accepting their apology and to let it go. I rather hoped I would find him more helpful in applying what the university policy dictates in such situations.”

Mohanad Kojak admitted that he experiences some ridicule every now and then from different people, but not in such an extreme level.

When asked about what he wished would have happened, he said: “This took place at 1pm when the platform area was crowded with students. There were witnesses everywhere, but none stood up to defend me.”

He assures that his attitude when he sees people he doesn’t know being abused on the street is to try intervening in a good way. “But in my case the audience was apparently enjoying the show.” He concluded."

My Point of view on this issue 

As a GUC Alumni I feel shame for this incident and the way I see it that the administration has two sides and needs to choose one, if they went with the bullies from engineering, we will stop having speech and appearance freedom in the university; then harassment can accrue to anybody who is different than the majority, be it a guy with a piercing, a girl wearing a niqab, a girl with a tattoo or a guy with a beard!
or we can take the side of the bullied student Mohanad Kojak and that will endure that concept of freedom and will assure that GUC is against bullying, verbal and physically abusing and is an educational institute that treats all students and staff equally not based on any reference! this kind of action can make the students enrolled in the university feel safe, I am sorry to say that but truth is we don't feel safe in the streets, anybody can be bullied for the same reason Mohanad was bullied for a difference in the appearance, If parents feel that their children are as unsafe in the university campus as they are in the streets, why bother enrolling them into the university, is it a question of education, well the education environment is a core competency to the education edge GUC is offering; according to Maslow's hierarchicy of human needs, safety comes as 2nd right after physical survival needs! 

Belonging and Esteem which are two feelings that are deleted by bullying, both come before self-actualization, I can fairly conclude that if students don't feel safe and belonging to the university, they won't have self esteem and they will fail in achieving their potential, So Note to Parents!! If the Administration doesn't take an action towards this and bullying starts to be a trend in the university, your child's chances in achieving will decrease!!

These bullies need to learn that this kind of behavior isn't personal freedom and their parents need to understand that they have submitted their children in a respectable university that supports education and personal freedom!
The administration needs to include clear rules about bulling in the official GUC policies highlighting the penalties that can meet any student who participates in any bullying activity!!!
Personally If I didn't have important work meetings on the day of the stand, I would have participated in the stand and demanded penalties against the bullying -I am sorry to name them- student and demanded an official apology for the Student and indemnification from the University!! 

The thing is that human beings has worked on making evolution in technology and 

revolutionized everything around us for ways to make our lives as beings much easier, 

comparing humanity evolution to that, you'll find that we haven't worked on violence, insults, 

harassment, etc.. and many issues, so basically for anybody who is talking about education 

level, simply it's a reflection of real life, we have worked on ways to make our lives easier and 

more sophisticated when we didn't work on ourselves to be more sophisticated and to 

deserve this life!