Durban - A controversial Umlazi boarding school is at the centre of a fresh scandal – a horrific bullying video went viral on social media this week.
In the video, a girl is repeatedly slapped and shoved as she lies on a bed in the school’s dormitory, denying accusations made against her. She is slapped to the ground, followed by a series of kicks to the abdomen, while being interrogated by her tormenter.
The school, Vukuzakhe High, once described as a beacon of the township, endured a torrent of bad publicity last year with reports of a three-week-long teacher strike affecting exams. There were also allegations that wayward pupils were smoking dagga on the school premises.
The chaos prompted a visit from KwaZulu-Natal education head of department Nkosinathi Sishi in June last year.
In the video circulating on social media, it appears the girl refers to the chief bully as “mother”. The “mother” asks: “Do you still want to be my child?” Terrified, she answers: “Yes.” The bully appears to be spurred on by onlookers – including the girl taking the video.
It appears the attack was sparked by an incident in which the girl ignored her “mother” when she was summoned.
At first the terrified girl dismisses all the accusations but finally succumbs to the volley of blows and admits to the “allegations”.
According to an Education Department spokesman, the attack was recorded in September last year, but the department became aware of it after it surfaced only this week.
The two-minute and 40-second clip shows a group of three girls, including the victim. The fourth girl takes the video with a cellphone. The abused girl and the bully are in the school’s sky-blue skirt and navy jersey. The third girl, who appears to encourage the assault and, on one occasion chips in with a kick, is in a white top and white and pink pyjama bottoms.
School principal Doris Fulela confirmed the incident but referred queries to the Education Department.
Department spokesman Isaac Luthuli said the video had been watched and three girls had since been suspended, pending a disciplinary hearing scheduled for Thursday.
“The pupils were suspended immediately after the department was made aware of the video. Yesterday there was a tribunal – it has made recommendations. The school’s governing body will sit tomorrow and will look at the recommendations and take it from there.”
He said the incident happened in September last year, but the department was made aware of it only this week after it went viral on social networks.
The bullies were in Grade 11. Their victim was in Grade 9, and was still at the school, he said.
He could not comment on whether the “parenthood game” on video was an isolated incident.
“What happened was wrong and unacceptable – it doesn’t matter what culture it was. It was not supposed to happen,” he said.
Durban child psychologist Linda Naidoo described bullying as a “tragedy” that principals needed to address.
“If victims are aware of this they will feel supported. Even when those incidents occur, they will feel confident to report it, knowing that the matter will be handled,” she said.
This would also make them feel better about themselves.
If not supported, victims were inclined to withdraw, “want to drop out and their performance starts to deviate”.
“It has a strong psychological impact on their ability and self-worth,” she said.
“It’s not temporary. It will be perpetuated. The bullies will engage in criminal activities and their antisocial behaviour could be affected if not corrected.”
Educational psychologist Andrea Kellerman said putting instances of bullying on social media allowed the bully to feel “very powerful” and degraded the victim further.
“The victim tends to feel that everyone knows how weak he/she was and feels ashamed and wants to hide from others in the school.”
She said the victim could develop long-lasting psychological effects from the trauma. These included depression, anxiety, sleeping problems, low self-esteem and aggression.
“At times the children who are bullied become the perpetrator and change into becoming violent, and can get trapped to become criminally active themselves.”
The video has already had more than 108 000 views and more than 5 200 shares on Facebook.
* IOL has chosen not to show the video because it involves minors.
The Mercury