Durban - Schools in the province were ineffective in tackling bullying and needed to take a tougher stance against the scourge, according to the KwaZulu-Natal Parents Association.
Vee Gani, chairman of the association, was commenting after a number of high-profile incidents have brought the problem back into the public eye.
The Daily News reported on Tuesday that the father of a Grade 10 Phoenix pupil had taken the unprecedented step this week of hiring armed bodyguards to protect his son from bullying.
The guards provided him with an escort to and from Phoenix Secondary School on Tuesday and on Monday. But the father, having made his point, has since said the armed protection was too costly and would cease.
The father, who is not being named to protect his son’s identity, claimed the school had failed to rein in the bullies.
Phoenix Secondary School has yet to suspend the bullies who two weeks ago repeatedly attempted to extort money from the boy in class and later chased him with knives as he left the grounds.
Speaking to the Daily News on Tuesday night, the father said he was angry that the bullies were still at school.
He was told by the security company that the school governing body would convene a meeting on Wednesday to deal with the matter, but he had not been invited to attend.
“The school has a huge bullying and violence problem, there are fights that take place and knives and guns are taken out,” he said.
Having reported the matter to the local circuit office, the father said he was hopeful he would find another school for his son soon.
Meanwhile on Monday, the Daily News’s sister paper, Isolezwe, reported on a video clip that has been doing the rounds which shows a Grade 8 schoolgirl at Hunt Road Secondary School on Durban’s Berea slapping and kicking another pupil in a school toilet.
The Daily News has seen the video that emerged on Facebook last week. It has since been deleted.
In it the girl bully slaps her victim on the face with an open palm at least 48 times and kicks her several times in the stomach in a one-sided onslaught captured on video by another pupil, who spurs on the bully.
Gani expressed shock. He said schools were failing to get to grips with the problem. He also said that at times incidents happened without the knowledge of teachers.
“Schools have to take a hard stance against bullies and need to look at their admission policy,” he said.
Violence in KwaZulu-Natal schools seems to have been on the increase in recent months, with a stabbing being reported at another Phoenix school and last month a Pietermaritzburg teenager was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for shooting dead a fellow pupil who had been bullying him.
KwaZulu-Natal Education spokesman, Muzi Mahlambi, said the Hunt Road Secondary schoolgirl had been suspended as of Monday and would face a tribunal soon. He said the pupil who had filmed the onslaught would have to testify before the tribunal and could also face disciplinary action.
Asked about the bullying at the Phoenix Secondary School, Mahlambi said the department would not allow the bodyguards to continue operating at school.
“Any form of bullying is unacceptable and we are concerned that this could fuel further bullying... We have asked the school to deal with the incident,” he said.
He said although the bully at the Phoenix school had yet to be suspended, the school had been instructed to submit a report to the department with a view to suspending the pupil.
Daily News