School violence, bullying must be rooted out

School violence and bullying are on the rise in SA. It is hardly surprising. We are a violent society. The 2018 Global Peace Index listed us as one of the most violent and dangerous places on earth. Why would schools be exempt? Violence is firmly entrenched in SA. It was used as a means to impose colonialism and then apartheid. It was state-sanctioned, legitimised and institutionalised — even against our youth. Violence, in the form of corporal punishment, was accepted at schools and used as a sentence to punish juvenile criminal offenders.

Later, violence was also used as a means of struggle against apartheid and liberation.

Once a culture of violence is so deeply rooted at every level, it is difficult to reverse.

But we have to try. On an institutional level, we are — in theory at least — getting better.

Thanks to our enlightened constitution and common sense, corporal punishment has been banned at schools and is no longer a criminal sentencing option for our youth.

But the latest incidents involving the highly publicised alleged beating of grade 8 boys by matrics at a relatively privileged government school like Selborne College has again highlighted the need to focus our efforts at addressing the culture of violence at a school level.

It is no easy task, especially if not supported by the provincial education department.

The same department that condemned these acts of bullying last time refused to support that school’s decision to expel two boys who had stabbed another pupil in full view of the school’s CCTV cameras.

Selborne warned at the time that it could not maintain proper discipline if the department sent out the message that pupils found guilty of serious violent acts should not face any consequences.

Our schools and the department that should be supporting them must work in unison to address the bullying at schools — which includes a devastating element of sexual violence. Recent reports that 20,534 young girls and teenagers, aged between nine and 19, in just one district, the OR Tambo district, have given birth since 2019, should raise a huge red flag.

There are issues of power, consent and coercion that need to be assessed and addressed at all our schools.

Schools also need to be more open and less defensive about the prevalence of bullying. School initiation practices and “rites of passage” historically have often had violent and coercive elements to them.

Such traditions have no place at our schools and should be ruthlessly rooted out.

These are educational institutions and if we cannot use education to at least try to inculcate a culture of kindness, tolerance and care in our children — we are doing something wrong.

Once a culture of violence is so deeply rooted at every level, it is difficult to reverse