[imagesource:instagram/misssa]

It seems Miss SA finalist, Levern José, is having to deal with her past after a Twitter user accused her of being a schoolyard bully.

The Miss SA hopeful was taken to task for being part of a gang of mean girls that terrorised kids at her former school, and the debate that followed has evolved into a discussion on both bullying and redemption.

Several more accusers have now stepped up to the Twitter plate to accuse the 23-year-old José of making their schoolyears hell. At the same time, there has been fierce debate about whether people should be held responsible for their ‘youthful ignorance’ later on in life.

I was shocked to learn you made it to the top 12 in Miss South competition, one of the girls you use to bully at school spoke out on what you and your gang of mean girls did to her on her whatsapp status, you are truly a horrible person I’m not gonna lie https://t.co/xGJc3q718e

— Anelisa 🦄 (@AnelisaJu) June 9, 2023

It seems a fair question as most people have done things in their childhood that make them cringe. In 2020, Bianca Schoombee, a Miss SA hopeful, was dragged to the gutter for the racist comments she made when she was 14.

Old messages surfaced where Schoombee used some unsavoury racial language and shamed fat people, and despite issuing a public apology, she eventually withdrew from the competition and received death threats.

Twitters commenting on José’s teenage antics seem to think that the potential Miss SA should do the same, while some went so far as to call her an ‘evil toxic person’. A scroll through the comments makes you wonder whether some of the people taking aim at José might be sorry about their words ten years from now.

After all, is there a ‘statute of limitations’ on schoolyard bullying?

The answer to that likely depends on your own experiences. I was relentlessly bullied at school myself but I can also remember, to my own shame, having dished out a few undeserving mean words to kids my 12-year-old self deemed ‘weird’ or ‘deserving’. I ran into my ‘weird’ classmate decades later and got the opportunity to apologise for how I treated him. He couldn’t even remember the incident and bought me a beer, so perhaps I was just lucky that my words didn’t cause lasting damage.

Because that’s what bullying does. It affects people in ways that don’t leave scars on the outside. It’s hard enough trying to convince your teenage self that you’re not a ‘freak’ without having people telling you that you are. And emphasising the point with kicks and slaps only drives the injuries deeper, the scars festering into adulthood.

As one commenter noted:

“Admittedly, I look back at my behaviour in high school, and I can honestly and unashamedly say I was a ‘mean girl’, I was not a good person. Over the years, I’m 100% sure I’ve grown to be a better person, I’m in no way the person I was back then. Are we saying people don’t grow & change?”

Levern José has as yet not responded to the accusations, so who knows how this will play out. Vying for the Miss SA crown does perhaps require us to hold her to higher standards, but what the future brings depends on whether she learned anything in the years after she allegedly terrorised her peers.

People grow up and learn. My ‘victim’ grew into his big ears, and as a hugely successful CEO of his own company, nobody calls him Dumbo anymore.

But some aren’t that lucky.

[source:iol]