By: Abdul-Ganiyy Raji
School signing out is a practice where students sign or draw their names on the clothes of a classmate or a senior who is leaving a school. This practice used to be popular in colleges of education, universities, and polytechnics. It is also now common among students leaving secondary schools.
A brother recently shared with me a picture of a young schoolgirl who gave out her bare breast for a male classmate to sign on. This was done under the guise of signing out. The brother told me that the incident happened in a secondary school in Sokoto. In the picture, the young man was seen writing his name directly on the breast of the girl. He was all smiles while doing it.
Signing out has also crept into Arabic institutions in Yoruba Land and other places. Male students of some of our Arabic institutions now freely write their names on their choice spots on the clothes of female students. They also call it signing out. We can’t claim that we don’t see them.
This is a big Fitnah. All parents and religious leaders need to fight it. What are parents teaching their children these days? I am aware that some parents also buy white T-shirts for their girls and boys to wear for signing out. They call the day this signing out takes place *a signing-out day*. Wait a minute! Who invented the term “signing out”?. Is signing out a requirement for transitioning from secondary school to university life or for leaving a tertiary institution? Who introduced this madness into our schools?
Are there no more decent ways students can keep the memories of their former classmates than this madness they call signing out? Why should boys be writing on the bodies, including the breasts, of girls in an environment that is supposed to raise decent and morally balanced citizens?
Why are schools allowing this madness? At first, girls were only allowing boys to sign on their clothes. They have now graduated to bringing out their breasts for boys to write on. Is this not supposed to be disconcerting to parents?
Successful parenting is not limited to having children who are beautiful, handsome or sound academically, but also in having children who are morally and spiritually balanced. Our homes are losing it.
What are parents teaching their children at home?
School signing out, which allows boys to be writing on the breasts or clothes of girls or girls writing on the clothes of boys, is evil and should not be allowed in our schools.
Please, let’s save our children. This is not civilisation. This is Fitnah.
Dear school girls,
Remember there is life after school. The young man who is writing on your breast today may be your personal assistant, employee or colleague in the office in the future. How would you feel remembering that he had once played with your breast in the name of signing out? Why don’t you choose to be different today? Why don’t you resist the temptation of allowing boys to be signing on your clothes? If your mates say you are not civilized, tell them your own understanding of being civilized does not include giving your body to strange boys to be signing on.
Abdul-Ganiyy Raji is the National Da’wah Officer of NASFAT Worldwide
