Learner and educator encounters

Violence is not confined to educators but extends to educators as well. The study by Burton & Leoschut (2013) found that educators were victims of violence perpetrated by learners, such as being insulted, being sworn or shouted at, being threatened, being sexually harassed, having a weapon pointed at them, having an object thrown at them, and being physically assaulted. Learner-educator violence is not only perpetrated by learners against educators but also by educators against learners.

5.6.7.1 Violence against learners

Learners indicated that the school is renowned for physical violence, emotional violence, and verbal violence perpetrated by educators. According to one of the learners:

The biggest problem is emotional because physical wounds heal but not the others. In terms of verbal I have heard educators swearing at learners, picking on their parents, belittling them, making them feel unworthy [L4].

We also have mental abuse, where learners are bullying other learners, verbal abuse, teasing them, mocking them, and ridiculing them. [E6].

I got angry yesterday when an educator squashed my work because it was just lying on my desk, she decided to squash it because it wasn’t her class work. Because I sat up late at night, I did my work. I went and did research, I went and bought data to do my schoolwork and

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then it had to all get squashed. I even started crying. She told me she was not giving it back to me. I went to her after school and she told me to get out. I thought that was very wrong. She could have taken it away and given it back to me at the end of the lesson. If it was her child’s work, she wouldn’t have done that [L3].

As this learner points out, emotional wounds do not heal easily. When educators belittle learners, making them feel unworthy, they brew unhappy learners who might even react in a manner that turns them violent as a way of expressing their frustrations. Provocation and retaliation were yet further examples:

I was writing my math test and my teacher verbally insulted me, which provoked me because I yelled back at him. I am being investigated because of that, but it was the teacher’s fault because she provoked me, she questioned me in front of the entire class and because she provoked me I am under investigation for expulsion [L4].

Educators did not only perpetrate emotional abuse against learners, but also became physical. As one learner observed:

I noticed a violent incident in the school where an educator has been hitting the learners with sticks and punching them with their hands

[L6].

Results suggest that educators are also indirectly perpetuating violence among learners. As one learner elaborated:

It was on the 1st of March and this happened at 10:05 in the morning. I had classes for Afrikaans, so a boy from my class hit one grade 12 boy because apparently, he stepped on his foot. He threw him on the floor and started punching him and made his nose bleed. [When the victim reported the incident] one of the teachers said she wished she was there, and the other teacher ignored him. So, during the break

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this boy told his friends about this and they came looking for this boy. I told him, “Don’t hit him, let’s go to the principal’s office and we can sort this out”; and then one of the boy’s friends pushed me and he grabbed me by the legs and he was going to throw me over. So, I held the railing and kicked his leg, they got me on the floor and then they all started hitting, after that I got up the floor and I didn’t know what was happening. I have a fractured scalp, nose, a bruised left eye and a nose pain. I was admitted to the hospital that same day and I stayed there for two and a half days. I got discharged and the following week, I had to go see an ophthalmic surgeon, a maxillofacial surgeon and the surgeon that treated me in trauma [L12]

We had an early closure. It was a SADTU meeting. There was an issue where our boys went to another school and there was a small problem there. I am the monitor of my class, so I was in my Afrikaans class with and the principal came in the class and he called me out. He asked me which learners went to another school. I said I don’t know. I went back into class and the educator continued doing the work. When I sat down, they told me I must go and change my place, so I went and sat where nobody was sitting, and I took out the book and I asked the educator what is the page number. He came running and he booted the table. The table hit me in my mouth. When I woke up, I pushed him, and I told him why are you hitting me and he punched me with his ring and after that it got stuck in my mouth. Then I pushed him he tripped, and he fell on the table. I asked him a question, “Why did you hit me”. He hit other learners. That was not the only incident involving that educator, he hit a lot of learners, and he also broke the stick on a boy’s head [L5].

This violence against learners paints a grim picture for the school. It is a picture that shows lack of ability to cope with violence from both the educators and the learners. It

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is also a picture that does not bode well for education. Clearly the school environment is not welcoming to both learners and educators.

Results also indicated that to protect themselves some educators resorted to threats. As one learner mentioned:

The worst incident of violence I witnessed at school was an educator assaulting learners where he [educator] took them into the classroom one by one [and assaulted them]. The learners had blue marks on them, he told them if they tell anybody he will kill them [L4].

Provocation by educators and retaliation by learners was yet another example of promotion of violence at the school.

She [the educator] always likes to make me sit on the floor when I don’t do my work... I get angry when I have to sit on the floor, but I just keep it aside [L2].

When an educator squashed my work, I was so irritated I could have throttled her and screamed at her, banging the table for her to give my work back. I would have told her she was being very hard on me [L3].

A parent also attested to her son being punched by an educator repeatedly.

The latest one, apparently, we didn’t know, because our son has got into several fights. Maybe he thinks that if he tells us we are going to think he is at fault. It was the same teacher that punched him in the ribs and the next day we thought he was sick, but we didn’t know why. Not once but repeatedly. I didn’t know about that until he came and told me and I told him the next time I would have gone to school.

[LP2]

The above statements indicate that some of the educators are to blame for the spread of violence at the school. They set a bad example for learners, making them think that

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it is okay to express one’s anger through verbal, emotional, and physical abuse. They also promote violence indirectly by not doing anything when learners report incidents of violence – perpetrators are encouraged, and victims take the law into their hands.

5.6.7.2 Violence against educators

Another theme that emerged was violence against educators. This not only involves learners but also adults from outside the school. As the LOHOD explained:

It is scary because of the fact that they can throw stones at us after school, attack us and our class is right at the bottom. We have had an incident here where we had people coming here and held us up at gunpoint [LOHOD].

Violence against educators is not only physical but also verbal. According to one educator:

Each one of us sitting here has been exposed to several levels of abuse. Just this week I have been called the B word and that is harsh. He [the learner] is in Grade 8 and he comes in smiling and entering the classroom. I said, “I won’t have you here because that is verbal abuse and I am not prepared to have you in my class”. Then we have incidents where we have taken the learners that have transgressed the code of conduct right up to the principal. He has given written instructions that they must conform to, but they are blatantly back the next day. There is no way; not even the principal is going to get them to conform [E3]

The LOHOD acknowledged the increase of violence by learners against educators:

Over the years there has been an increase in pupil-educator violence. It is not always verbal; it is now becoming physical. It used to be verbal, but I think the teachers used to discard it. Now it is becoming

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physical and when it becomes physical the teachers are not allowed to touch the child, you know, with corporal punishment. Our hands are tied [LOHOD].

These statements indicate a lack of morals and respect for educators by learners. But, as indicated in the previous section, some of the educators are also to blame as they behave no differently from the learners. Clearly, the educators, parents, and learners need to come together to address issues of violence at schools. It is clear from the above statements that this is not a problem that can be solved by any of the parties alone. The community also needs to get involved, maybe in the form of mentors or police motivating learners against violence.