Racism, or kids being kids?

Cape Town - A commission of inquiry will investigate racism at a Western Cape school after an assault on a pupil was captured on a cellphone video, said the provincial education department on Monday.



"I have now received two preliminary reports on the incident, in which a cellphone video clip captured an alleged racial, violent assault on a learner at the school," said Western Cape education MEC Cameron Dugmore.



The cellphone clip, recorded at Langenhoven Gymnasium High School, a former model C school in Oudtshoorn, shows Grade 9 pupil Pequestro Dyssel being assaulted by a fellow pupil while their teacher looked on and failed to intervene.



"From the reports it seems clear to me that we need a more-extensive process to probe the underlying issues that led to this incident."



Culture of racism



The probe also was prompted by a petition received from the local community accusing the "tradisionele wit skole (traditionally white schools)" of racism against other pupils.



The petition, received from the People's Forum, called for an in-depth investigation to weed out the "walglike (repulsive)" culture of racism in local schools.



The People's Forum also asked that the department root out those who supported and allowed this culture to prevail in schools and to educate teachers on dealing with diversity.



The forum said that the incident at Langenhoven was not an isolated one.



Dugmore said the commission would investigate the context in which the incident at Langenhoven took place as well as the complaints raised in the petition.



"In this regard, we have approached the Human Rights Commission to consider a request to become part of such a process," he said.



Situation being monitored



"In terms of Langenhoven Gymnasium itself, the department will be requesting the school governing body to urgently institute a process of formal disciplinary hearings against all the learners allegedly involved."



Investigations would include the role played by the teacher and the pupil in the incident.



A report on the inquiry and recommendations from the commission will be completed by the end of May.



Dyssel was back at school and the situation was being monitored by education officials, Dugmore said.

Racism, or kids being kids?
For sure it needs to be "properly" investigated but there are instances of similar behaviour here in the UK. The difference in South Africa is that the racist card is always going to be played when it is a White on Black assault. Have you ever seen the Media refer to a Black on White assault as racist?It is all part of the onslaught against Whites to provoke feelings of guilt and pour ever more into the begging bowl.Last week Tony Blair commented on the Black on Black gun crime that has invaded London and was quickly condemned as a racist yet when I look at Sky TV all the victims are Black and all the perpetrators are Black.
Reply:that teacher is sick, if we didnt have a shortage of teachers we could fire them. They are to blame as much as the kids ... they are supposed to protect our children not sit back and watch stuff like this happen.
Reply:I am a regular visitor to South Africa, and I'm not surprised.

Apart from the fact that anybody in any way different will be given a bad time at school by some bullies and their hangers-on, there is a deeply pervasive attitude of racism still very obvious once you leave the big cities. Neighbours of my friends (near Hartenbos) would not dance with a black girl at a birthday party, when I asked them afterwards it was invariably the same answer: they were afraid of the other white farmers not approving. Another neighbour who is black, fom Senegal, did not have any contact with the neighbours for more than 3 years until he got invited by another friend to her braai, when she moved in she sent invitations to All her neighbours, something that was talked about by the others for ages, though in the end he was accepted into the fold. There are many more such incidents, and part of it is racism, another part the inclination of all rural communities to resist change, and to fear new things.
Reply:long questions like yours give me a headache. All I know is children emulate what they are taught. They look to their parents, their church, their extended family. If that is lacking, and they have no guidance; they screw up, and use it as an excuse. If we tried that in my day, you'd get your *** whopped bigtime. But now, that's child abuse. And then they wonder why kids shoot others. Hmmm-mmm. Think there's something wrong here??? And everybody says, "Don't blame me.' Healthy fear and respect is lacking. It's not racism. It's just downright laziness and lack of parenting !!!! And blame the rest of the world for it, and my kid needs free counseling - CRAP! I have yet to see "counseling" fix anything for the spoiled little brats whose parents don't give a crap until God forbid, it might cause them shame or cast a doubt on their total lack of parenting skills.
Reply:anyone can put racism into any arguement, chances are it's kids been kids, but adults do need to do more to combat racist kids
Reply:On the face of it, I'll regard the incident as "kids being kids". We all grew up with school fights - and in my case, we were all black.



Maybe the problem lies with the actions or omissions thereof on the part of the teacher. Even there, care should be taken not to accuse the teacher's alleged actions to be laced with racism.



My biggest worry is that the children involved might have permanent scars. I don't think that the culprit was racist.



PS I witnessed that march. It was a day before official opening of KKNK. I think it was an opportunistic move!
Reply:I think that the fact that the teacher looked on and did't try to stop the pupil is disgraceful. The teacher failed their job in failing to treat everybody fairly. If more teachers in the world watched on while kids beat each other up they would be terminated from their jobs. It may be racism but it ultimately falls back on the teacher's inability to try to protect the pupil where nobody else may not have the guts to stand up for them.