Booysens SAPS’s opinion on drugs and violence in our schools
According to the Booysens SAPS, they see a lot more bullying, rather the type of violence we have recently seen at Forest Hill High School.
THERE are no official registered and undocumented gangs in the 31 schools in the Booysens area.
Although there are clicks in every organisation and school, these are nonviolent.
The SAPS gets called to schools for some fights, but the SAPS says these are normal fights. They often do awareness campaigns on social crime prevention.
“Bullying isn’t a once-off occurrence, bullying takes place over a period of time. We know bullying can lead to worse things,” WO Gerhard Cornelius added.
Booysens SAPS is of the opinion that children learn this kind of behaviour at home and in the societies within which they live.
According to Capt Lorraine van Emmerik, spokesperson for Booysens SAPS, it is a combined responsibility, it is about discipline at home, but also the responsibilities of the schools and the community, including the children, to prevent drugs from going into schools.
“There is no time for our schools to search every single learner,” Cornelius explained.
Booysens SAPS tries to help children who become involved with drugs in order to get them into programmes, like Sanca and other NGOs.
They do everything in their power to help first, so these children will not end up with a criminal record.
“Once you have a criminal record, your future is affected forever,” Cornelius added.
Children will be arrested
However, when a child is caught dealing drugs, he or she will be arrested. Van Emmerik added: “Especially when they are dealing in drugs. One has to take the seriousness of the crime into account.”
Cornelius said that after being given help, some children do improve.
“The ones that do want help will get help.”
Booysens SAPS also has faith-based organisations that help those children who struggle with drug addiction. It’s a new approach called The Divine Intervention Approach and is a programme for all the police stations in the country.
Cornelius said they mostly deal with normal kinds of violence in schools. They do deal with big fights between rival schools, however, van Emmerik added that most of these are just petty fights.
“Going into statistics, there is no such violence, as we have recently seen at Forest Hill High School, that has been reported since 2007,” Cornelius added.
Society plays a role
When it comes to violence in schools, Cornelius said: “We can only bring the message. We will target a certain age group instead of talking to the school as a whole. We cover a variety of relevant subjects, such as violence, drugs and sexual abuse.”
Booysens SAPS has a good relationship with its school principals and are regularly involved in educating the children around the dangers of drugs and violence.
Booysens SAPS has had incidents where learners come to school with drugs and sell to other children, and they have arrested these learners. Peer pressure also plays a big part in children becoming involved with drugs and violence.
Van Emmerik reiterated that it should be a combined effort to save our children from a world of drugs and violence.
“Society plays a big role in the upbringing of our children, and a fatherless generation does play a vital role in how children are brought up and what they are exposed to,” Cornelius added.
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