Maximum security: In the United States many learners have to pass through metal detectors to determine whether they are armed before they can enter school. Photo: Psychiatry Education’s Ruin, Citizens Commission on Human Rights
More and more learners are being caught with guns and other weapons at school, reports Leoni Benghiat
Twenty years ago, violence in schools was the exception to the rule. Parents could drop off their kids at school without any worries, knowing that they would be safe for the duration of the school day. That has changed drastically. The violent acts reported in South African schools over the past few years read like scenes from a low-budget gangster movie.
In 1999:
– At Hoerskool Vryburg in North West, a grade seven learner was sentenced to five years in prison for stabbing a fellow learner in the neck with a pair of scissors.
– A grade 12 learner at Mokgome Secondary in Meadowlands, Soweto, fired two shots at his girlfriend. The shots missed her, but killed a grade nine learner.
– Realising he had mistakenly shot another pupil, the gunman pointed the pistol at his head and committed suicide in front of his fellow learners.
– Andreas Werth, a teacher at the Town View High School in Krugersdorp, Gauteng, was shot dead by an upset grade 11 learner. Last year:
– A grade seven pupil in White River, Mpumalanga, was killed when a classmate stabbed him with a penknife.
-Armed robbers stormed into the Zwide High School in Port Elizabeth during mass, forced the children to lie on the floor and made off with thousands of rands in school funds.
– A 14-year-old pupil at the Primre Gedenkskool in Jamestown in the Western Cape was stabbed to death during an argument he wasn’t even involved in.
The cases mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg. According to experts more learners are being caught with guns or other deadly weapons at school.
This fact recently prompted the Gauteng Department of Education to implement the Safe Schools Project in the Tshwane area. Lebelo Maloka, spokesperson for the Gauteng Department of Education, said R3 000 has been set aside for each of the 2 500 schools in Gauteng. This money will be used to mobilise schools against crime and help them implement a security plan. The project also involves a promise signed by learners in which they undertake not to get involved in crime and that they won’t do drugs.
Meanwhile, schools have taken it upon themselves to try to protect their children on the school grounds. Several security measures have been taken, totalling millions of rands. However, not all schools can afford these measures. To pay for guards who patrol the school grounds during the day, Helpmekaar College in Johannesburg has to pay R10 000 a month.
Fortunanately, provincial local governments are realising the extent of the problem. In the Eastern Cape, police regularly raid schools, checking learners for weapons. In the Western Cape, the Department of Education has established the Safer Schools project, where children can phone a 24-hour toll-free number to report any crime on the school grounds.
But experts agree that violence at schools is a problem which will not be solved unless there is a change in attitude, starting in the home. Lanette Hattingh, a clinical psychologist, says parents must start realising that their children are growing up in a culture of violence.
“They watch far too many violent television programmes and that’s where they start getting the idea that it’s cool to kill, because they frequently see their role-models killing each other.”
– The Teacher/M&G Media, Johannesburg, August 2001.