Five Dale College Boys’ High School pupils caught on cellphone video shoving a screaming boy into a refuse metal drum during a school break will have to explain their actions in a formal disciplinary hearing next week.
Dale authorities said the boys will not be expelled as a more reconciliatory and rehabilitory approach will be used in the hearing.
The spotlight has once again been turned on bullying after the video clip of the five boys seemingly bullying a helpless peer went viral on social media platforms, sparking heated comments.
In recent times, local experts have linked bullying to serious self-harm and have advocated trauma counselling.
The video, which has been widely shared on Facebook and WhatsApp, shows five boys grabbing another pupil and pushing and stuffing him into the metal drum.
The pupil tries to resist by kicking and screaming and by holding onto the perpetrators. However, his attempts fail as the five boys pin him down, squashing his body, head first, into the drum.
Speaking to the Daily Dispatch, headmaster Mike Eddy said the school viewed the matter in a very serious light. “We will consider all options to deal with this matter as best as we can because we view it as very serious.”
He said expulsion was not one of the options. Instead the school was looking at reconciling and rehabilitating the boys and aimed to ensure such incidents never happened again.
Eddy said the incident took place last term during exam time and was only brought to his attention on Tuesday.
“The victim did not report the matter,” said Eddy.
The boys involved, including the victim, were all Grade 10 pupils.
Eddy said after viewing the footage, the school had called in the parents of both the victim and the offenders in the video.
“The boys implicated in the footage were asked to write a statement and what transpired was that they planned to do this,” said Eddy.
This is the third video this year to portray violence and acts of bullying in Buffalo City Metro schools.
At the beginning of the year, cellphone footage from Port Rex Technical High School showed girls throwing punches at each other.
Another video from Cambridge High School shows a girl being dragged by her hair across the school courtyard by another girl.
Provincial education spokesman Malibongwe Mtima said officials from the department will be sent to the school to try and “integrate” the pupils.
“We need to try and integrate them and show the doers that their actions were wrong and bystanders need to know they were wrong by not doing anything. This is while we offer support to the victim,” said Mtima.
- In the past few years, the Dispatch has spoken to psychologists and educators about the toll schoolyard bullying exacts on its victims.
Masithethe Counselling Services acting director Jackie Orsmond linked an increase in teenagers talking about and attempting suicide in East London to peer pressure and bullying.
Social worker Lorraine Macdougall said victims of school bullying required trauma counselling.
Last year, Clarendon Primary principal Dr Melanie Drake told the Dispatch that bullying, in real time or online, had to be spoken about.
“Social media, online safety, bullying, socio-cultural issues, pornography – we can no longer be islands.
“We have to negotiate together.” — arethal@dispatch.co.za