In June last year the South African Human Rights Commission said more than 3.2-million learners are bullied each year in South Africa.
What is worse is that more than 67% of bullying victims will not ask a teacher for help because they do not think it will change their situation.
In March this year after seven incidents of bullying and violence at schools surfaced and footage taken at Mdingi High School in KwaZulu-Natal went viral on social media, the education department revealed more than 548 cases of bullying had been reported in schools since the academic year began on January 15.
Basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube announced the department had developed an “Addressing Bullying in Schools” manual. In addition, the SAHRC said South African pupils would have to sign a national code of conduct in a bid to curb behaviour that has increasingly turned playgrounds into battlefields.
The code deals specifically with bullying, which includes “physical and sexual violence, threats, gestures, teasing, social exclusion or other psychological violence or verbal, written or electronic communication, cyberbullying, and the possession or dissemination of any content, including sexual or explicit content, whether real or simulated, without the permission of the persons displayed in the content, whether such persons are visible or not.” It is set to be rolled out in the coming financial year.
The school year ends on December 10 and neither Gwarube’s manual nor the SAHRC’s code have materialised.
This comes as the umpteenth incident of school bullying emerged last week at Milnerton High School.
The video, which sparked outrage on social media, shows a pupil being physically and verbally attacked by a group of boys while others stand by, with some cheering on the perpetrators.
The incident occurred on October 16 and allegedly involved members of the school’s first-team rugby squad.
While the school placed eight pupils on precautionary suspension pending the outcome of disciplinary proceedings, the grade 11 pupils were also hauled before the Cape Town magistrates’ court after being charged with assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
But under the scrutiny of public outrage — police used stun grenades to disperse a crowd of about 150 parents and community members who called for immediate justice and action last Wednesday — the school on Monday confirmed additional incidents and videos had emerged during the investigation.
In total nine boys were assaulted and left with severe injuries.
This atrocious incident has again highlighted our nation’s shameful affiliation with violence incubated by a history of responding to conflict with brutality.
It has illustrated bullying continues undetected and under-reported in the face of antagonists emerging unscathed from any consequence.
The educational psychologists are clear — schools mirror the context in which they are located and learners receive very little guidance on how to deal with conflict without resorting to violence.
The struggle for self-confidence, anger, impulse control and masculinity fuel violent behaviour. The cycles of bullying and trauma-violence will continue on repeat until modelling in the home and community changes and pupils feel supported via teaching, policy and consequence management.
The problem is beyond a disciplinary issue, it’s a national crisis — with parallels to epidemics of gender-based violence — that demands urgent intervention.
A manual or code of conduct is simply not going to be sufficient to put bullying in the naughty corner in an environment where fear and intimidation rule with an iron fist.
We need systemic change, not superficial Band-Aids.
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