Parents fear for their children’s safety as bullying in schools in Eersterust gets out of hand

Concerned parents of Eersterust fear for the safety of their children as they believed high school fights in the area were “getting out of hand”.

According to community activist Debbie Moses, in less than a week, they have been made aware of three cases where children were involved in a fight on school grounds.

“These offenders are using knives and scissors as weapons. We need quick mitigation of this escalating challenge at our local schools. It is unacceptable,” she said.

Ruth Moseley of Eersterust Unite said that in one of the incidents, one of the learners hit another with a beer bottle.

“It was total chaos as the others kept on cheering them on.

“Where do we draw the line? To what extent can we keep the educators responsible for the incorrigible behaviour that must be seen somewhere else?

“The entire community needs to take hands. To an extent, we’re all to be blamed because we forgo the notion that your neighbour can reprimand your child. After all, we have allowed pride and arrogance to overshadow our unity.

“This is why the divide is so wide in Eersterust,” she said.

She added that it was not too late to take immediate action.

“Let’s move forward and build a future for our kids together. No criminal or bad elements should have the upper hand over us, we’re bigger and better than that.

“We can make this community great again,” said Mosely.

Kgothatso Moloto, of Voice it in Action, said that the reality is that “we need to have more interactive sessions with the learners”.

“We need to get more involved with our learners so that they can rather speak about issues than take it to the streets in the form of a fight,” he said.

Danie van Loggerenberg of Child Protection Hotline said that Eersterust’s residents are facing more and more concerns, due to the impact of Covid-19.

“Communication is a priority. Good communication overcomes many problems.

“We must also help the bullied children and help the children to stand up against bullying.”

Van Loggerenberg added that bullies were always in the minority.

“If the others stand together, the power of the bullies is taken away.

“We are planning not to only visit schools in Eersterust to educate them on bullying, but we want to get more involved with the parents as well to inform them about the consequences when their child is involved in bullying,” he said.

ALSO READ: MECs and Eersterust community meet up to discuss problems in the area

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