A big debate on bully culture in Alexandra
Community members in Alex are taking a proactive stand against bullying at schools in an attempt to root it out, and put a stop to the GBV it can lead to.
Two reported stabbing incidents involving learners in Alexandra township have resulted in proactive campaigns aimed at understanding the root causes of violence among school learners.
Read more: Alex nursery school learners told bullying is not cool
A debate-style dialogue circle hosted at Thusong Youth Centre on February 5 welcomed Minerva Secondary School’s staff and learners, as well as community members to an engagement session, which culminated in a greater understanding of the factors which influence violence among learners in the community.
Dialogue facilitator and community outreach specialist Thumeka Joos reflected on the urgency of getting to the root of this violence. Joos identified bullying as the root cause of violence, pointing out how learners need to understand the relationship which exists between bullying and gender-based violence (GBV).
“Learners do not really know what bullying is, or what GBV is. They think that GBV is only between lovers. They don’t understand that GBV starts with bullying, and that these issues interlink,” Joos said. “We explore these root causes before the problem grows, and children end up killing each other.”
Joos explained that the engagement took on more of a debate format, breaking away from the centre’s usual format of dialogue circles, because of the difficulty in getting people to talk openly on the topic.
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There were 35 learners in attendance. Joos recounted a moving anecdote, shared by a Grade 11 learner at the school who lamented a lack of care, or concern, from adult influences in their community.
“She spoke on how youth were suffering from different mental health conditions that either start at home, or develop because of the society they’re in, pointing out that support isn’t there, not even at home,” said Joos.
Joos found that triggers for learner violence are coming from cultural normalisation of violence at home, from peer influence, where learners are influenced by their friends and social norms in our community, as well as being learnt from family and community social dynamics.
“Learners are stressed, without realising that they are stressed. They go to school with anger issues, and take these issues out on others, bringing violence to school,” Joos said. “Learners are experiencing trauma, and they don’t want to talk about it. There are learners who have faced traumatic experiences in this community, but they bottle up the anger, only to release it in the form of bullying.”
According to Joos, addressing these challenges will require a comprehensive, multifaceted approach that involves educators, policymakers, community leaders, and the learners themselves. This is because learners are not the only ones affected, but teachers as well – who are there with the learners from morning until afternoon.
“If violence starts at school, it goes out into the community. You find a child gets involved in violence, and goes home to report the matter. Then, because the area is congested and we know each other in Alexandra, the parents, or families, start fighting, because of the bullying, which started where? At school.”
Joos also expressed frustration over local schools in Alex having ineffective discipline codes that lack anti-bullying policies. A challenge that’s also being tackled by social worker at ADAPT in Wynberg, Sidwell Sehoana, who also weighed in with the paper on the matter of learner violence on February 6.
Sehoana spoke of the importance of families developing healthy relationships with their children that embolden learners to open up if they’re being mistreated at school. He said that strong family bonds like these would enable parents and guardians to recognise abusive patterns from their children.
“What Thusong is implementing is ideal, as parents need to be informed about mechanisms that can be used whenever they are confronted by issues of bullying,” Sehoana said. “A child’s behaviour is informed by what is presented before them, be it being raised in an abusive environment, or learning certain behaviours. Still, about 80% of behavioural patterns that are common in the society are informed during the upbringing of that particular individual.”
The issue of bullying at schools seems to be a provincial one, with MEC for education Matome Chiloane expressing concern over an alleged bullying incident at Sutherland High School in Centurion, on February 5.
“Bullying has no place in our schools,” said Chiloane. “We strongly discourage any form of bullying within our learning environments and urge all learners to report such incidents to school management, so that necessary action can be taken promptly. Schools must be safe spaces where learners feel protected and supported at all times.”
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