Schools reopened this month, and some parents might be nervous about the thought of their children either getting involved in or being victims of social crimes.
Station commander at Midrand Police Station, Brigadier David Tsotsotso, shared advice on how issues affecting learners can be handled properly and how the police play their part.
Tsotsotso said the issues the station usually comes across are bullying, the use of drugs like dagga, theft of school resources, and incidents of sexual assault among others. However, he made it clear that most of these were not issues that escalated, they were at a minimal level. “Bullying is one of the issues we come across. It is there and we have got a social crime prevention officer here at the station, hence, we had the ‘Adopt a Cop’ programme,” he said.
“We have shared contacts with principals. Going forward, each school with the involvement of social crime prevention and a particular police officer will then develop projects that address problems in each of our schools, focusing on a specific school’s problems.”
Tsotsotso also advised learners that if they are a victim of a crime at school, they should not hesitate to report it to a teacher appointed to deal with these issues. “Normally the teachers will escalate the problems to us via our social crime prevention. We will then engage with an investigation or will go as far as making an awareness campaign at the specific school to make sure that we stop that behaviour or crime from taking place again.”
Tsotsotso emphasised that fighting these crimes cannot only involve schools and police alone but support from parents was also needed. Especially since children will sometimes feel more comfortable reporting an offence against them to their parents. “I know principals also engage parents whenever problems are emanating at schools, we go as far as that as well.”
Tsotsotso concluded, “If a matter is reported to us and the parents are not aware, it will help the parents to have the school’s and our contacts and we will inform the parents of what has transpired.”
Details: Midrand Police Station 011 347 1600
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