Bullying in schools: Is it ever gonna end?

Written by Tazteeq from the blog Opinion Ramp on 21 Nov 2012
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I was reading this article on Sowetanlive about a kid who stole his mom’s gun to school and shot dead one of the boys who were consistently bullying him. Made me think of some of the bullying I had to absorb during high school. Now that I think of what the victim has done, I’m sure that at that age and stage, had an opportunity presented itself to conceal a weapon to school to sort out such kids, I would have done that in a heartbeat. It’s very sad that some people continue to bully others even at work, but that’s a topic for another day.

Teachers didn’t seem to care when one went into the staff room to report bullying, mistreatment or any sort of unhappiness. They just went on to chew gum and discuss last night’s episode of Generations while they summoned other pupils to mark test scripts.

At some point I wished I had super-powers to destroy bullies. One guy in particular used to block the classroom door for me many times and demand that I give him 50c and called himself a toll-gate. And he’d push until I gave it to him. Ended up reporting him and my mother went to give him an piece of her mind. At another school it was also rumoured that some girl hung herself because of being bullied too much.

Just how many times do pupils have to die before the education system does something about such acts? Oh, wait, our Minister of Education Angie Motshega said “she doesn’t care”.
Share your bullying stories, I’m sure there are lots.

15 Comments

Tazteeq
21 Nov 2012 09:31

tzhavile
21 Nov 2012 09:37

damn! I have never!!!

makisto
21 Nov 2012 09:46

Tjo skeem, Mina yazi shem I had to endure bullying while I was on Sub-B!

There were these two guys who constantly wouldn't stop bullying me. Each and every single day, I would hand either of them my lunch box and the other one my pocket money. I didn't come from a rich family but mom took good care of my lunch boxes and pocket money. I suppose these guys were going hungry in their families.

I do not remember how it started exactly bu I know it continue for well over 4 months and of course they threatened that if I reported them at school or at home, it would be the end of me as they would time me after school as we walk home and beat me up to a pulp. I was so scared.

However, one of my friends who is also my neighbour was so concerned about me such that he had to report them to my older brother who was going to a different school. These bullies were in my class nogal.

So after hearing that, my brother met with one of the bullies and beat him up to a pulp and broke the bully's arm such that the bully had to be hospitalised. And you know, it served him just right.

I remember the bully's mom coming to my house and my brother told her off and pushed her as old as she was out of our yard. She started screaming and shouting and my older sister came out of the house and sweared at her and it turned into a whole screaming match and the lady left ashamed after hearing her son was subjecting me to a great bullying tumult at school.

That very same day, my brother marketed the other bully and gave him warm klaps until his face raised like Snowflake cake flour with lots of yeast!

After that, I lived happily ever after.

Looking back now, it actually just dawns on me that from that Sub-B class of mine, it is actually only me and two other ladies with a university degree and all the guys hardly have matric.

Now I would say I have my idea of an ok job while they do not have such. Bullies can are seldom successful.

Ntaksay
21 Nov 2012 10:57

Yho Makhisto, you have a good brother.

I was in grade 3, there was this guy he was the oldest and tallest in class,. He would take all our (who ever he targeted that day) pocket money and if you refuse to give him he would spit on your face and pinch your arm until you have a bruise. He stopped school at grade 4. He was too old to be in those grades.

Tazteeq
21 Nov 2012 11:06

The worst for me was when one guy took the chalkboard duster and stamped all that white dust on my head...

Favoured
21 Nov 2012 12:08

i thank God i never went through that

but what happend is that the place where i lived at (at my grandma) the people of the village believed she is a witch so in return they hated me so on the day schools closed all the girls planned to beat me and i agreed only if they come one by one and man i beat three and the other three refused to come get what they deserved

i still dont know where i got that ability to beat them up as i was slim (i still am). and from then i went to stay with my mom at the urbans

sisila
21 Nov 2012 13:41

Me i fought my way out of bulling.

When i was still doing primary a group of girls who called themselves mammas targeted younger girls to bring them lunch,carry their school bags,wash and iron their hangerchief(sometimes full og mucus) and called them mommy so then one who chose to be my mommy used to make carry her school bag while she walk hand in hand with her boyfriend it continued for a year until i got tired one day she gaveme the bag i threw it on the floor and told her to carry it herself i was tired she slapped me but because I was full of anger i grabbed her breast and bite them and didn't let go until she started crying from that day all the bullying stop.

When i was at high school there was a guy who will throw my books on the floor just to make me pick them up put a wet paper in my ear when im writing in class I told the teacher she didn't do anything then one day out of fustration i took a compass and stabbed him on his shoulder and the teacher realised that i did it out of anger and decided not to report it to the school headmaster to avoid me being expelled from school coz i was one of her best students but just made the boy to sit far from me.

VusiK
21 Nov 2012 14:06

They just went on to chew gum and discuss last night’s episode of Generations

Genblogging Teachers.

As long as there is a need for dominance, getting ahead, being better, and any form of competitive criteria in anything we live ... There will be bullies, and bullying by those less endowed cerebrally ...
Physical domination is as old as our ancestors were amoeba ... It will not change now or at any other stage of our evolution.

... and in our culture ... Being a bully is admired by more people than it is frowned upon ...
To stop arguments on the point ... You have a president who bullied his way to office ,,,, and a rash many people admire infant Malema, who is probably a terrifying bully if one takes a real look at his character ... but we are talking about the best way these otherwise challenged individuals can conjure to get, be, and maintain dominance and stay ahead of the crowd.

The same rules applies to criminals, rapists, and a wide berth of those most either admire, or consider heroes in their lives.

All thing being equal, we are animals, and not very advanced beyond other animals, save the prehensile oppose-able thumb, walking upright (which is extremely odd for an ape ... or any other animal because in locomotion ... 4 legs is always better than 2 ... and the general loss of body hair.

Tazz .... being a bully is simply another means of expressing / venting one's inadequacies ... and we are a nation full of people who are very frustrated with their their understanding of their inadequacies, but not interested in improving themselves past & beyond those inadequacies..

Also ... Bullies ... are generally a result of inadequate parenting, ... as is stealing a weapon, as is ignoring a victim when asking for help or attention .. as is everything we are, do and probably will be very slow to address, or change. ...

because this is what & who we are... We talk , exchange ideas, speak of our personal experiences, then do nothing ... most times open a bottle of something alcoholic, and sip away our problems ...

or so we think ...

VusiK
21 Nov 2012 14:11

Let us start addressing the bullying problem by moving away from our agressive ways ....

Which we soooooooo admire , love and treasure ....

There would be 34 people still living providing for their families somewhere in the NW province if we embraced less of the culture of bullying, ... and intimidation as a vehicle to transport our agenda.

VusiK
21 Nov 2012 14:15

We should not be "holier than thou" ... just because it has a disastrous consequence in some high school ...

We should be eradicating this culture or aggression and the violent dominance of others ... especially those who are obviously physically weaker (perhaps because they are smarter)....every second of every day we live

VusiK
21 Nov 2012 14:26

so ... Tazz ...

As long as there are comparitives in our lives / realities ...

There will be bullying ...

Period !

myname
21 Nov 2012 16:21

hahahahahahaha askis guys i know its not a laughing matter maar ur stories are funny.

Nna mine was not hectic coz it happened once. The took my bunch of apples (it was my lunch). The thing is i'll bribe them (ndandibakopisa during tests and homework) and they used to call me Mancane coz i was slender.

yOnGaMa
22 Nov 2012 18:04

Yho! Molweni bahlali its bn a while & I realize uba I tuk my time talkin abt this... Hhe bethuna yo stories sound really sad & it must b a reliwf being a grown up &/or hvn sum1 2 fyt yo battles, u guys r so lucky. Ngelishwa I wasnt that 4tunate. I was in boarding whn we wr bullied, they used 2 call themselves osis'abadala, they wr in stds 7 -8 bona. Evry Fridays we (middle age) thats wht they called us sub A- std 3,4 we had 2 find gud canes whe we wud line up basibethe izandla ezi zide zophe (bleed) or until it breaks whicheba came first. We got used 2 it & got scared if it duzn happen. The matrons wud tell us we r growin up wh we report 2 them. Whn yo parent visits, u must not touch yo guddies until usis'omdala gvs u yo ahare afta yo parent goes. HHa! I hated still do boarding schl since then & hated my mom & gran 4 leaving me there bit ke shame sine I am short syted, it was the only achl I vud go 2 at that tym. Yho now I m all teary just thinkin abt it.

Magical Baby
23 Nov 2012 14:02

Hi Guys,

This issue of bullying can have serious negative consequences if left untreated. I remember watching Desperate Housewives one time like that, and this boy I forgot who his mother was. But the mother kept on tormenting him and laughing at his face for being stupid and all that stuff. Before he would open his mouth, his mother would be waiting for him to slip up or say a word out of turn, turn he would turn red tears swelling in his eyes and he would beg him not to laugh. I remember him saying it like this "please don't laugh, please don't laugh" then she would be burst out laughing, that laugh that makes you wanna hide yoself under the ground. The long and short of it, he killed her mother and he hid her in her house and he ended up being a Serial Killer in that neighborhood, especially if a person laughs, he would then target that person and kill.

My point is the VICTIM of bullying this time can be a monster if the issue is not treated.

Magical Baby
23 Nov 2012 14:09

Then again if we can look closely at rapists and we will find out that some of them have been sexually abused or molested. I was in borading school, there was this boy who came the same year with us at school. They used to call us freshers beause we were still knew. At boarding school, we were using these iron beds, (ibhedi zentsimbi), so at the boys section the abuse was worse than at the girls side. They made that guy to push his p*****s through those holes and pretend as if he was having s** with a girl he was fancing at school. Eventually the guy left school in 2 months and I hear that his manhood was partially damaged in the process.

Unfortunately we live in a sick world, with sick individuals.

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