VIDEOS: Pupils beating up their teachers in SA

A massive intervention is needed as various videos of learners and teachers going head to head in violence have trended this week.

At least three videos of teachers and learners in physical confrontations were widely shared on social media by Tuesday.

The schools and teachers have not yet been identified,but the videos appear to have prompted a huge outcry for immediate action. Not one of the children’s faces is clear in any of the very grainy videos, which has led to The Citizen feeling that republishing them below does not identify them.

The first video shows a school teacher physically wrestling three learners. The three pupils appear to be holding on to the teacher. A female voice shouts “muyekeleni (let him go)” seconds before the teacher headbutts a learner wearing a maroon pullover.

The video ends with the learner daring the teacher and asking him what he’s going to do.

The second video, also dated June 12, shows a female learner and an older woman assumed to be a teacher in a heated debate.  The woman smacks the learner on the head and the learner immediately fights back. Another woman attempts to intervene but is thrown over a table during heated hand-to-hand combat.

More learners appear to break up the fight, yet the lady who was thrown over a table appears to go back to the learner to attack her.

The third video shows two pupils dressed in school uniform fighting with a woman.  It is still unclear if the woman is a teacher but the pupils can be heard mentioning a phone during the physical confrontation. The woman can be heard screaming for help.

According to reports, the pupils were retaliating because the teacher confiscated their phone.

The 22-second video also ends with no clear information about its location.

The videos have been described as gruesome and labelled as the pupils wanting to show their schoolmates how “bad” they are.

The South African Council for Educators (Sace) says they are appalled at the video circulating on social media showing two learners attacking and physically assaulting a teacher in full view of members of the community.

“We condemn and act decisively in dealing with teachers involving themselves in such conduct.”

Sace feels something drastic needs to be done in stopping learners from conducting themselves in such a manner and therefore calls on both the school governing body and the department of education to act decisively in disciplining these learners with the harshest punishment.

The council in a statement says teachers need support, protection and respect at all times and therefore strongly condemns such conduct by learners.

Sace pledges to work hard to professionalise the profession, and therefore calls on the department to work on creating an environment by coming up with measures to protect teachers.