Bullying in school results in fatal consequences
Christinah Mogobye
By:C hristinah Mogobye
Bullying in school results in fatal consequences
The rate of bullying in schools has risen again, and this time with a kind of fatal revenge. In Sefikile village in the North West Province, a learner lost his life due to a revenge for bullying another learner. Schools these days take bullying as a very serious crime and offence, and they don’t let it go unpunished; however, some of the causes of bullying arise from home.
While in a taxi, I saw a group of villagers protesting on their way to the school premises, and a thought came to mind that there was a brutal killing, according to the situation.
When I got closer to get to know what was going on, I heard about a learner who has been bullying another learner, eating her food every day and the mother decided to dish up two lunch boxes and poisoned another one and gave her child to give to the alleged bully, he was rushed to hospital and sadly lost his life in a week.
I then was confused on how the news reached the community, it was said that the child confessed that her mother sent her to do that evil act and when I asked why they protest at the school and they said they were demanding answers from the principal on how he let it happen, why did it have to happen under his watch and which steps did he take. They blamed him as if the principal is obliged to guard all the learners, and it’s highly unlikely he would do so. The mother of the deceased denied that her child was a bully and that the poison incident occurred. She stated that her child has been on and off sick.
This is not the first incident to occur in Sefikile; there was another similar case, and sadly, the poor kids pay a hefty price with their lives. A memorial service was held at Sefikile community center, and the community’s attendance was poor; those who protested failed to come and do the right thing by paying their last respect to the deceased learner. It’s so disappointing.
Bullying needs to be dealt with in our community, and people seem to be clueless about it and need to be taught about it, because we have been having fatal cases in our community. We previously lost a learner who took her life because of bullying, followed by a suicide attempt.
It broke my heart as an activist to see such things happen under my watch in my community. I intend to go to the school with the ward Councilor to propose an anti-bullying campaign. It’s urgently needed. I will do it with the help of the school Management Team and the Ward Councilor.
