There was an uproar on Facebook a while back over the group rape of children at a school.
The children were forcefully gathered and put together in one place.
It’s said that they were put on the roof once, and in the school theatre another time.
There were a lot of rumors surrounding the incident,
So it wasn’t clear what exactly happened.

But one thing was clear.
The person who did this did not only sexually assault the children,
He also tortured them.
He used insects on them,
And he made them all watch.
The weird thing is, he assaulted children before and got fired.
But they brought him back and he did it again.

This is not the first incident of its kind.
But it triggered me,
Because I went to that very same school where it happened.

For two days, I kept imagining how the school principal reacted when she found out.
She used to be the high school principal when I went there.
She probably covered it up and fired him without making a scene.
She probably also compensated the family of the first victim, but I don’t know who she is.

I also imagined the heartless person who convinced the principal to bring back that employee.
“He won’t do it again, Ms. Dina.
It’s the last time.
He won’t get into trouble again,”
They must’ve said.

Even though I haven’t seen Ms. Dina since 1998—18 years ago—,
I could hear her voice and see the look on her face
As she pretends to care about what happened.
I’m sure she just threatened to hurt him if he did it again.
But then she hired him again.
Probably because his pay isn’t high and he goes unnoticed.

I felt sorry for the children’s mothers.
I thanked God that I didn’t bring children tino the world, even though I wanted to.
I thanked my mom, who always used to instruct me,
“No one is allowed to kiss or hug you.”
“Don’t sit on anyone’s lap.”
Then it became,
“You can’t sit in front of your father with that short-sleeved home dress.”

Honestly, until very recently, I thought my mother was just exaggerating.
I thought she was unnecessarily making things hard on me.
But I discovered that she was teaching me about my body in her own way—regardless of whether it was the right or wrong way.

I imagined how it would be when those mothers tried to teach their children something.
For example, if a mother said to her daughter,
“Don’t wear that sleeveless home dress in front of your father,”
The girl would reply with,
“There’s a big picture of a woman in her bra and underwear in City Stars,
And baba sees it every time we go.”

I felt sorry for the children and even more sorry for their parents,
Because there was an uproar on Facebook in April,
But then everyone went silent.
It’s as if nothing happened.