Bullies and Victims at a Public Secondary School:

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Bullying is widespread and perhaps the most underreported safety problem in public schools. It occurs more often at school than on the way to and from there. As schools continue to address the problem of bullying and its consequences, an understanding of the perpetrators of bullying and their victims is important for creating successful prevention and intervention strategies. The present paper sought to understand bullies and victims from the perspective of teachers at a public school. An exploratory design was employed. Eight participants were purposefully sampled for the study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants. Thematic content analysis was used to analyse data. It emerged from the study that bullying was prevalent at the public secondary school. There are diverse factors associated with both bullies and victims. There is need for early identification of learners who are likely to engage in bullying as well as those likely to be victimised by their peers.