DURBAN - Brighton Beach SAPS Captain Louise le Roux has urged parents to support schools in the fight against school bullying.
Le Roux said school bullying remained a prevalent social ill within many educational institutions in South Africa.
“As part of SAPS, the Brighton Beach back-to-school safety initiative media campaign was launched to empower parents on understanding and how to deal with school bullying,” Le Roux said.
She urged parents to continuously speak to their children about bullying.
“Remind them that being mean to others is unacceptable. Assure them that you will act if they make a report to you.”
Le Roux said if parents suspected that their child or children were being bullied but were reluctant to open up, they should find opportunities to bring up the issue by asking questions such as, “Are there mean children in your school/class?” “What do they do that is mean?” “Have they been mean to you?”
“School bullying occurs within the educational environment in places such as the classrooms, hallways, bathrooms, stairwells, locker rooms, playgrounds, tuck shops, sports grounds, swimming pools and places where children assemble.
“Within these spaces children also commit cyberbullying.”
Le Roux said when bullying occurs outside the school premises, or after hours on social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Snapchat, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter and Instagram, it is categorised as bullying and not school bullying, unless it can be proved that the transgression is because of an incident that had been initiated within the educational environment.
“Bullying actions include pushing, shoving, tripping, kicking, spitting, name-calling and insults, swearing at a person/s, spreading malicious rumours, physical abuse, intimidation, destruction of personal property, swearing, extorting tuck shop or transport monies, to mention but a few,” Le Roux said.
She added that one or more perpetrators who have greater physical or social power than that of the victim or victims within the educational environment participate in the act of bullying.
She said bullying was not once-off but habitual.
Guidelines for parents/guardians/caregivers:
- When your child reports that he or she is being bullied, don’t brush off their cry for help.
- Do not instruct your child to retaliate or ‘’man up’’. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
- Act immediately.
- Make notes of what your child reports to you, as the bullying imposed upon them may have caused trauma and the child may forget information.
- Mentor your child to report the truth to you.
- If the child was a victim of a physical assault, ensure that you take clear photographs of the injuries sustained. Include a full-length photo of the child. Continue taking photos of physical injuries sustained within 24 hours as the bruising may be more prominent.
- If your child complains of pain in the area where he or she was assaulted, seek immediate medical attention as often a child may have suffered internal injuries during the assault.
- If personal property or even a school uniform was damaged during an act of bullying, take photographs and keep the damaged property to present to the school.
- If the bullying occurred through social media, take a screenshot of the messages as physical evidence. Print it and produce it to the school, ensuring that you keep a copy for yourself.
- You should have the contact details of the principal, head of grade of class educator. Contact them immediately once you have all the facts from the child and request a meeting the following day. If you are unable to contact these individuals, you must still accompany your child to school the next day to make the report. When meeting with the staff, request that minutes are taken of the consultation session for reference.
“Remember that the school can only act if they have factual information to deal promptly with the situation,” Le Roux said.
“Parents and educational institutes must work in collaboration to prevent school bullying, to create safer school space.”