Bystanders are as much to blame. Schools must do more to stamp out bullying

Academics, educational psychologists and the South African Society of Psychiatrists (SASOP) have suggested that the role of bystanders during bullying incidents should be urgently addressed.

Scenes of pupils cheering perpetrators during bullying incidents, as was the case at Mbilwi Secondary School recently, are common.

Lufuno Mavhunga, a grade 10 pupil at the school, committed suicide on April 13, hours after she was beaten and bullied by a fellow pupil outside school.

Dr Emmanuel Mayeza, an academic from the sociology department at the University of the Free State, said that to end bullying, “the school should consider addressing bystanders, improving the availability of professional support services to victims of bullying and rethinking the curriculum”.

Dr Richard Nichol, chairperson of the SASOP Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Special Interest Group, said that children need to know as “onlookers of bullying incidents” that they have certain responsibilities too, “by assisting the victim rather than encouraging the perpetrator”.

Educational psychologist Andreas Baron said that schools and teachers can model appropriate behaviours.

“Neutral bystanders to bullying can often play a positive role, should they reject the bully’s behaviour and need for attention and approval of them. Learners can be taught what constitutes bullying and how to spot it, and potential victims can be empowered by providing them with concrete steps to take.”

Educators are not always equipped and sufficiently skilled and trained to deal with bullying.

—  Shaheda Omar, clinical director of the Teddy Bear Clinic in Johannesburg

Bronagh Hammond, spokesperson for the Western Cape education department, said the department has conducted a successful anti-bullying campaign which drew attention to the fact that “those who film, post or distribute videos are also participating in the bullying”.

Prof Deevia Bhana from the school of education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal said bullying was “the consequence of multiplicity of issues”.

“It can happen in the most privileged of schools and the poorest and often involves a fight for power and claim to status. A school that fails to enforce anti-bully laws and fails to recognise bullying is complicit in encouraging it.”

She said the extent to which it happens in schools is also a reflection of the broader environments from which pupils emerge.

“Recognise that bullies are part of a broader family and social structure requiring interventions that take heed of parental involvement. However, if schools commit firmly to routinising an anti-violence, anti-bullying ethos, then it will help someway.”

But Shaheda Omar, clinical director of the Teddy Bear Clinic in Johannesburg, said that teachers are not always equipped and sufficiently skilled and trained to deal with bullying.

“Educators are there to teach and to impart knowledge. They are not psychologists or social workers, but they need to be equipped to reach out the moment they see any warning signs.”

She said she was “shocked” and “disappointed” at the shortage of skilled staff in Limpopo to deal with bullying at schools.

The Limpopo education department revealed to Sunday Times Daily that it did not have a full-time psychologist and had only seven social workers for mainstream schools.

About 1.7 million pupils attend schools in the province.

The department has six psychologists, who were employed through a grant, to specifically support only pupils with severe to profound intellectual disabilities.

“It’s a daunting task for the seven social workers. Because of the caseload, they are not able to be effective in their intervention towards the learners,” she said.

Besides a case of assault being opened with police by Mavhunga’s family against the alleged bully from Mbilwi Secondary, cases of assault against two bullies from two different schools in the province have been opened with police since the beginning of the month, the provincial education department said.

In one of these incidents at Nthuba Secondary School in Mogalakwena district, a video clip released to Sunday Times Daily by the department shows a girl hitting another girl with a branch of thorns.

A male pupil then intervenes and removes the branch from the perpetrator’s hand but she continues to slap and punch the victim.

In another incident on April 13, a pupil from George Tladi Technical High School in the Capricorn north district had to be rushed to Polokwane Hospital after being attacked by a fellow pupil with a pair of scissors.

Limpopo education department spokesperson Tidimalo Chuene confirmed that the perpetrators involved in all three incidents had been suspended.

She said the disciplinary hearings of two of the three pupils involved in the incident at Mbilwi Secondary started last Thursday.

“Seven cases of bullying were reported since the beginning of the year. A process is under way to create a WhatsApp platform where incidents can be immediately reported.”

“We acknowledge that with the emergence of the recent cases and how we get to know about them through social media, suggests there might be a gap in how they are reported and handled in some schools.”

The department was replacing three social workers who left, and had also appointed pupil support agents to offer support to vulnerable children.

“We also rely heavily on psychologists and social workers from the departments of health and social development, who are always dispatched upon our request.”

Meanwhile, Hammond confirmed that the Western Cape education department had one psychologist and social worker based at each of its 64 circuit offices, and eight senior psychologists and eight social work supervisors at its eight districts.

Gauteng education department spokesperson Steve Mabona said the department conducts “behaviour modification camps” during June and September, where all identified bullies are taken to programmes that speaks to anti-bullying.