Cape Town – Bullying at schools has come under the spotlight again as a Woodstock mother approached the SA Human Right Commission (SAHRC) for help.
This as another took to social media in a desperate bid for intervention for her child.
Jamielah Kagee said her son, a Grade 5 pupil at Rahmaniyeh Primary School in Zonnebloem, had suffered physical abuse from fellow pupils since he started at the school this year, and although she had taken it up with the school’s management, the situation had stayed the same.
Kagee said the alleged incidents had landed her and the school in court on two occasions and another court case was pending. “I’ve been to the school so many times... it’s affecting him, he cries in his sleep and he’s lost a lot of weight,” Kagee said.
Kagee has approached the SAHRC, whose provincial manager, Lloyd Lotz has said it is investigating the matter.
Principal Abdullah Rawoot denied the school had done nothing to try to stop the alleged bullying. He said the school had counsellors and psychologists on board and said the boy had instigated many of the incidents.
Meanwhile, parent Natasha Staggie took to Facebook to “break her silence” regarding her 14-year-old daughter allegedly being bullied at Livingstone High School.
Staggie said she had yet to receive an outcome of a disciplinary into an attack on her daughter.
“On October 31, (Staggie’s daughter)was hit from behind, fell unconscious on the ground and was repeatedly kicked. I was messaged by her teacher to say she fainted.
“No one even called an ambulance After many appeals to the education department, police, doctors, and speaking to so many people, I’m back at a dead end,” Staggie wrote.
The principal of Livingstone High School was not available for comment yesterday. Provincial education department spokesperson Millicent Merton said two incidents had been reported at Rahmaniyeh Primary and they had requested a report.
Merton said a counsellor had started counselling sessions with groups and individual pupils. She said there had been allegations on both sides concerning the conduct of all learners concerned, including Staggie’s daughter.