Eersterust community fed up with fights at local schools

This week, a video showing what appears to be a fight between schoolchildren circulated on social media, leaving the community and parents of Eersterust worried.

Patriotic Alliance members, Lucas Rabbie, Godfrey Williams, Debbie Moses Williams, Vinolia Meyer and Kgothatso Moloto of Voice it in Action met with Warrant Officer Thomas Rasivhetshele of the Eersterust social crime prevention unit to raise their concern about school fights.

Four cases have been reported in three weeks.

“The perpetrators who have been involved in fights at Prospectus school, Norridge Park primary as well as Eersterust secondary school respectively, were identified and the learners involved have been suspended,” he said.

The activists felt that it was clear that not enough was being done and that the police were not equipped to handle certain situations.

“We understand your concern, and it is a concern that we are busy addressing. Children today are no longer what they have been before – they are out of control,” said Rasivhetshele.

“We have seen that fighting in schools is escalating and it is becoming very serious,” he said.

Rasivhetshele added that they had called for meetings with the school governing bodies as well as the principals.

“We have to come with solutions. I have found that it is not going to help to only meet with the school governing bodies and the principals, but we need to set up meetings with concerned parents as well,” he said.

He said that they needed parents to come forward to assist them.

“We are experiencing challenges in interacting with the community. We are not visible enough and we acknowledge that.

“We will be launching an anti-bullying campaign soon.”

He said that they would be visiting the schools without notice to search learners.

“When we are not doing enough, we need the community to inform us.”

Moses said that parents were failing to address bullying at home.

“Do we have to wait for our children to die first before we do something?

“The innocent parents of those children who are not involved in school fights are stepping forward in saying that they are fearing for their children’s lives.

“We are tired of talking, we need to take action,” she said.

“This topic first came to light last year and since then we have been reporting it.

“Personally, as a parent, as a concerned community member, I want to see action. I want to see those children disrupting classrooms, being taken out of the school,” she said.

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

Moloto said that it was clear that manpower was lacking and that there was no responsible body.

“We have meetings after meetings, but the problems are still persisting. How many cases have we seen particularly in Eersterust where there have been school fights.

“The police cannot give us clear answers.

“As a community, we need to stand together to come up with solutions of our own. At the end of the day, we will always be told due to the lack of resources, are the reason for the problem. Children are getting out of hand – not at school or home. We can’t be supporting fights. It is the parent’s responsibility to take care of your children,” said Moloto.

Williams said the police were not intervening as they should.

“It is the responsibility of the police to protect our children.

“You (SAPS) are not visible enough. The police sound evasive. It is unacceptable.”

Rabbie suggested that a programme needed to be implemented to change a child’s mindset as to what they would face when they did not observe school rules.

“We need to look at the psychological factors. Learners need to learn the reality of their actions and they will manifest this fear in other children in the long term. Let us not limit it to bullies, but we need to inform all learners on their rights.”

Gauteng education department spokesperson Steve Mabona said the department was aware of all fights among learners at the above-mentioned schools.

“The SGBs have held disciplinary hearings. We strongly condemn any acts of misconduct which seeks to undermine the dignity of our learning institutions and urge all our learners to refrain from acts of misconduct in schools.

“We implore parents to assist the department in instilling learner discipline in and outside the school environment.”

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