Everyone needs to join the battle against bullying in schools

The death of young schoolgirl Lufuno Mavhunga in Limpopo two weeks ago left the nation horrified and in shock. Lufuno was filmed being bullied and assaulted outside the premises of the Mbilwi Secondary School, where she was repeatedly slapped in the face by another schoolgirl while other pupils stood by, watching and laughing at her. After this terrible incident she went home and took her life by overdosing on some medication. Her death has caused widespread outrage and condemnation from people from all walks of life, but it is not enough. We need to do more.

Lufuno’s death has brought immense shame and sadness to the nation. The question is: have we done enough to protect our young people, like Lufuno, to curb violence and bullying in our schools?

As a parent and grandparent I cannot even begin to imagine the pain, brokenness and anguish that Lufuno’s parents, siblings, friends and extended family are going through right now as they try to make sense of this sad situation. Our thoughts and prayers will continue to be with the family and her friends.

Let us deal with this ugly phenomenon of violence and bullying in our schools. Statistics released in 2019 by the National Centre for Education showed that one in every five pupils reported being bullied at school. These are not great numbers in a society with very high levels of gender-based violence and abuse, and of crime in general.

Based on these numbers we can conclude that we are living in a very violent society which in turn influences the behaviour of our children. Violence and bullying in our schools come from our society, therefore it is society that must respond to the scourge.

In the past, we have heard how this problem was plaguing our schooling system, including higher education. Violence and bullying are being imported into our schools, leaving many children and teachers traumatised, with the result being fatalities just like Lufuno.

We have heard the desperate cries of parents, teachers and pupils in our country. If we thought this was confined to Limpopo, we are mistaken. We have a crisis on our hands and we need to act, and act fast, in order to arrest this before it becomes another pandemic, if it is not already.

We still face and battle the pandemic of Covid-19, which has put into sharp focus some of the issues we have been ignoring and not paying attention to — like bullying and violence in our schools.

Without condoning this ugly behaviour, one wonders what psychological impact Covid-19 has had on children, particularly with having to go through the lockdown experience, some with their parents, others alone, seeing and hearing of people dying at an alarming rate. The increase in genderbased violence in our society has affected our children psychologically.

Fear, worry, anxiety and depression come with the negative impact of all these things.

We must ask the question: is our schooling system equipped to deal with these developing trends? Does the system have programmes to respond to these psychologically challenging issues confronting our children today?

Some of these children come from broken and/or disadvantaged family backgrounds and are in our care to get a chance in life. The last thing they need is a bully disrupting their education and putting their lives and futures at risk.

The government, political leaders, religious and church leaders, parents, teachers, law enforcers and civil society in general must act decisively against the mayhem that bullies are unleashing in our schools.

While it may not be possible for the police to patrol every school in the country, surely the troublesome ones can be profiled and the police in the area tasked to visit such schools regularly.

Of course, we don’t want to turn schools into high-security zones, but with a bit of imagination and the mobilisation of the government, community and private sector resources, we should be able to protect our children from bullies.

Schoolwide campaigns should be considered whereby students and teachers are informed on how to deal with bullies on school premises. The campaign would involve talks to pupils by experts and counsellors. This is where the clergy could come in, because they usually know and are in touch with their communities.

All must be done to rescue them from their destructive paths. One hopes that with the correct programmes, teaching and support at schools this behaviour will cease outside of school too. However, if children break the law, they must face the consequences.

It must be made clear that schools are a shared space and society will not allow bullies to do as they please in such a space.

One hopes that with the correct programmes, teaching and support at schools this will cease outside school too