Punishment alone will not solve classroom violence

AGRADE 8 pupil was caught on video beating up his school teacher. As expected, we are all shocked, appalled and disturbed by the absolute temerity of a teenager not only attacking his teacher, but confidently pursuing him long after he had left the classroom. My mind can fathom one child going berserk and attacking his teacher, but the sounds of his mates cheering him on, erupting with merriment and filming this episode filled me with more terror.

It took me back to my formative years in township schools when some teachers literally got away with murder. They could tear a child to pieces for the slightest misdemeanour, use a razorsharp tongue to break an already fragile self-image and, even more frightening, give a helpless child a vicious beating. I saw many children, especially young boys, walking out of the classroom never to return because their rage and humiliation were too much to bear. There was only one incident in which a classmate called Moss slapped a teacher for calling him stupid. We were

There are many like him who terrorise other children and their teachers

more shocked that he had dared to raise his hands to a figure of authority.

The point of this story is that even in the most repressive environment in which children did not have a voice because they were children, we hardly ever witnessed such brazen behaviour.

We obviously do not know what prompted this incident, and only those who were in that classroom are privy to what transpired. But can there ever be justification for this? A matric pupil from Glenvista High School phoned my radio show and described the abused teacher as a timid fellow who often gets teased because of his weight. He said he would find it difficult to accept that the teacher may have used hurtful and acerbic language or punished the child in any way.

I had another caller who is a former pupil at the school and she broke down on air, confused and devastated by this incident, which does not reflect the Glenvista High of her day. She said the school had some of the best teachers in South Africa and they managed not only to teach, but to discipline and inspire.

So what happened and how can it be repaired? Many have now called on the authorities to punish this boy. And I add my voice to that. There must be consequences for this behaviour and he must face them. But something tells me that punishing him by suspending and eventually expelling him is the easiest thing to do. There are many like him and they continue to terrorise other children and teachers. If this were an isolated incident, we could all express our outrage and move on. But it is not. This incident reflects a violent society whose values have been eroded over a period of time. There are countless examples of pupils arriving at school armed with knives. Who can forget the gruesome killing of Keamogetswe Sefularo, the 14year-old who was stabbed to death by a fellow pupil only 15 years old?

On the same day that South Africans were reacting to the Glenvista incident, anger was mounting at a Cape Town school where a teenage boy accused of raping four minors has been allowed to remain in the classroom. A court order has permitted the boy to stay at school because the alleged crimes did not take place on the premises and no previous incidents involving the child have been reported.

And that is the point — we expect children to be different people at school when they come from a world that is violent, brutal and rife with abuse. My guess is that they will manifest this dysfunction wherever they go. I don’t know what the solution is, but my guess is that punishment alone is not going to resolve this conundrum.