Abstract
There has never been a stronger demand from the South African public to reduce school violence than at present. The demand for safe schools cannot be achieved unless the issue of bullying is adequately addressed. However, it appears from newspaper reports that some of the role players are not willing to listen to the victims of bullying. The aim of this article is to give a voice to some of the victims, as well as those witnessing school bullying. This article reports on findings from an investigation of the experiences of a group of Free State learners who were witnesses and victims of bullying. The research instrument was the Delaware Bullying Questionnaire. The first important conclusion from this study was that bullying was a serious problem in some Free State schools. Secondly, it was found that the respondents were more often the victims of male than of female bullies. Thirdly, the quantitative data indicated that the majority of victims were bullied by learners who were in the same grade as they were. The qualitative data, however, revealed that the bullying of Grade 8 learners by Grade 12 learners seems to be a fairly common occurrence. Finally, some comments and recommendations are made.
Highlights
There has never been a stronger demand from the South African public to reduce school violence than at present (Beaver, 2005:9; Blaine, 2005:4; Naran, 2005:4; Smit, 2005:5)
From a reading of newspaper reports that have been published on this topic in 2005, it seems as if bullying is rife in some South African schools
In the light of the seriousness of the long- and short-term effects of bullying for the bullies, the victims, the bystanders, educators, parents and the community at large, role players should strive to remove this evil from our schools
Summary
There has never been a stronger demand from the South African public to reduce school violence than at present (Beaver, 2005:9; Blaine, 2005:4; Naran, 2005:4; Smit, 2005:5). According to the Saturday Star (Anon., 2005:3) a 16 year old girl was “allegedly forced to drink a bottle of Jik by a trio of school bullies”. In another article Du Toit (2005:1) gives a sympathetic account of a 16 year old boy’s fear of attending school after he had been verbally and physically abused by his fellow classmates. His mother’s attempt to lay criminal charges against the alleged perpetrators was unsuccessful – a police officer dismissed the charges as “childish”
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
