by Rev. Vonnie E James, JP, Grenada Baptist Association
Heartfelt gratitude embraced all who illuminated Grenada’s 53rd Inter-Secondary School Athletic Championships (Intercol), held 8–10 April 2025, at the Kirani James Athletic Stadium, a vibrant triumph of Grenada’s spirit.
To the Grenada Association of Principals of Secondary Schools (GAPSS), your decades of legacy inspired, nurturing stars like Kirani James and uniting parishes in pride. To the Grenada Athletic Association, your steadfast support fueled every sprint, leap, and cheer. To every athlete, coach, volunteer, and supporter — your passion embodied “Unleashing Potential, Defining the Future,” making Grenada shine. Special praise surrounded the 2025 Torch Run, launched on 21 March, uniting schools like Hillsborough Secondary and Bishop’s College in a relay of hope, carrying the flame across our island with joy. Yet, bullying cast a shadow, wounding Intercol’s light with taunts and exclusion that still demand action.
As a chaplain who led spiritual care at every Grenada Invitational from 2017 to 2019 and served at the 2024 CARIFTA Games at the Kirani James Athletic Stadium, I walked and worked with athletes and coaches, carrying their joys and burdens. I did not understand race dynamics or field statistics, but one truth remains clear: bullying in all its forms was wrong then and is wrong now. We must stop it.
The 2025 Intercol Games united over 1,200 athletes from 25 secondary schools in various events. The Torch Run, reimagined, began 21 March, with two schools daily; 8:30 am start, 9 am at the first school for two and a half hours, noon at the second — each with a torchbearer in track uniforms, running 5 minutes before handover, led by Hillsborough Secondary and Bishop’s College. Yet, across those 3 days of remarkable gifts and unmistakable talents, cries emerged: verbal taunts and online bullying wounded hearts, threatening mental health and dimming Intercol’s brilliance.
At an integrated school in Jamaica, the students bullied my daughter because she was speaking Grenadian. At a high school in Grenada, the students bullied her because she was speaking Jamaican patois. When coaches and sports professionals meet me, they often think that I am an athlete. However, teasing at an early age possibly prevented me from pursuing this path,
Bullying festered in Intercol’s rivalries. Whether rooted in divides between parishes like St George and St Andrew or through youthful taunts or adults whose default disposition is depreciation rather than appreciation, it is still wrong.
A 2020 NOW Grenada report shared a mother’s anguish — her son endured slaps mislabelled “rites” at a secondary school — a pattern students said persisted at Intercol, with athletes mocked for stumbles, accents, or school colours. Westmorland Secondary’s 2020 campaign highlighted taunts at non-athletes, like cheerleaders shunned for non-sport roles, a pain that echoed across stadium stands. A 2025 X post from a Grenadian athlete sighed, “We competed for joy, but jeers broke our hearts,” aligning with UNESCO’s 2019 finding that 51% of bullied girls face emotional distress. Online bullying, driven by widespread smartphone use, targets outfits or efforts, wounding spirits amid broader issues like youth growth through sport and mental health.
The mental health toll proves profound. Victims face triple the risk of depression, with girls battling anxiety from cruel slurs and boys skipping school, plagued by fear or headaches, worsened by Grenada’s small size, where everybody knows everybody. Perpetrators, seeking peer status, entrench aggression, mistaking taunts for loyalty, blind to the harm they inflict. Bystanders — classmates, fans — carry heavy guilt, as one shared in a 2023 forum: “Staying silent while my friend was mocked haunts my soul.” Observers, like media crews or vendors, shrug off taunts as “games spirit,” adults — coaches, teachers, parents — misread them as rivalry, and bystanders fear social backlash, allowing bullies to persist, wounding Grenada’s youth.
Bullying betrayed the unity of the Torch Run, where schools like Hillsborough and Bishop’s College passed the flame, symbolising shared purpose. Students’ cries — “Cheer us, do not curse us” — signal an urgent need for change, yet adult inaction and bystander silence empower bullies.
We must stand against bullying now.
At the Grenada Invitational, I counselled sprinters battling doubt; at CARIFTA, I prayed with athletes facing pressure. Bullying cuts deeper, a wound a multiprong, multilevel approach including undergirded by major media campaigns against bullying can heal.
Media crews and association officials must amplify respect, as the Torch Run united schools. Messages against bullying, broadcast widely, must urge bullies to stop, turning media into a force for good. Coaches, teachers, and parents need to enforce rules, mirroring the Torch Run’s precision.
Training can equip many to halt verbal, social, or online bullying, challenging perpetrators to cease. Students can shift tides, as one said: “A teammate’s cheer after my fall gave me hope.” Peer mentoring, like torchbearer teams, emboldens bystanders to confront bullies with courage. A campaign against bullying across radio, television, social media, and livestreams, launched before Intercol, shifts culture, urging all to reject harm.
Yet, let us face it — bullying often stems from deeper issues that the bully is struggling with, whether they are insecurity, trauma, or unmet emotional needs. While it is essential to support victims, addressing the root causes of bullying can help prevent it altogether. Programmes that focus on emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, and mental health awareness can make a significant difference for both bullies and their targets. Bullies’ targets are people: our families, our friends, our fellow fans – all deserving of dignity and human flourishing – all having worth and the right to thrive.
