School bullying is claiming children’s lives

THE incidents of pupils bullying each other across the school spectrum have become a cause for concern for South Africa society, as they have resulted in some of the bullied pupils taking their own lives.

In a recent incident, a Grade 9 pupil at a KZN school died by suicide because she was reportedly being bullied by other pupils, who teased her about the shape of her head.

Incidents of name calling, teasing, even assault have become rampant in schools, and the results have been grave.

This has caused many organisations to call on the authorities to embark on awareness programmes in schools and within society, to conscientise communities and pupils about the dangers of this practice, which is fast becoming a pandemic.

Bullying takes place in many forms, including the use of social media.

Schoolchildren have found Facebook and WhatsApp to be easier and cheap platforms to use to socialise and to distribute, among other things, video clips of each other either in a classroom situation, or on the playgrounds during breaks.

One such video is a clip of schoolgirls recorded while one was assaulting another girl in a classroom, which resulted in the victim deciding to take her own life.

Parents’ associations, teachers’ associations, learners’ associations, and even the religious groupings have called on the government to take decisive steps to deal with bullying and assault in schools, and find ways to curb this escalating challenge threatening to destabilise the school system.

Some say the Department of Education must not hesitate to expel those pupils found guilty of bullying and abusing others – so that it makes an example of them, showing that incidents of bullying will not be tolerated in schools.

Some have said the parents and educational institutions must work together in collaboration to prevent school bullying and create a safer school environment.

Parents have been asked to be more observant around the behavioural patterns of their children, and be open to discuss issues affecting them, in order to detect signs of being bullied.