A rugby player from Potchefstroom Gimnasium is facing criminal charges after his assault on a fellow Gr.11 learner left his victim with two fractures to his lower jaw.
Looking back, the intercessor is not sure whether he would do it all again.
“As much as I knew I needed to try and break up the fight, I now realise that it could easily have cost my life,” he says. In April, last year, he underwent open heart surgery for a severe heart condition and is still considered to be a high-risk patient.
In addition, he now has to deal with the pressure of catching up missed schoolwork at a critical time in the academic year and the anxiety of facing his assailant in the school corridors on a daily basis.
Video footage of what happened on 29 July was captured on another learner’s cell phone and has already been seen by thousands of viewers. But it shows only the last two-thirds of a situation that played out in three separate phases, leaving three victims in its wake.
Eyewitnesses say a confrontation between a slightly-built learner and a big, strong rugby player broke out behind the tuck-shop, with the latter wanting to ‘teach the other a lesson.’ The victim was lucky to escape with just two black eyes and a cut on his face. Motivated by the significant power imbalance, another learner in the same grade stepped in and wanted to know why he was beating the boy up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h31xQ7RRzWU&feature=youtu.be
The video shows how the bully then unleashes his wrath on the third party and delivers a number of punishing blows to his head. Seeing his friend caught in the antagonist’s stranglehold, a second observer comes forward in an attempt to calm the situation. Within seconds, an equally big friend of the bully approaches from behind and slams a fist into the peacemaker’s jaw from the blindside, knocking him out instantly. Bystanders watch how the aggressor relentlessly continues to punch and kick the unconscious learner on the ground. But, when he sees his victim come around and stumble towards him, he runs away. The victim then realises that he has no control of his mandible that is now hanging limply from under his ears.
The cost of the two fractures is already close to R125 000 and medical bills continue to mount on the long road to recovery.
According to Mr Casper Botha, chairperson of the school governing body, the five-hour long disciplinary hearing on 6 August, included parents and legal representatives. The verdict was expulsion for each of the accused, suspended for one year, meaning that even the slightest transgression could result in their immediate expulsion. Both have to undergo anger management through the in-house life coach.
At this point, Mr Albert Stafford, chairperson of the disciplinary committee, says a brand new disciplinary policy is scheduled to be implemented on 1 September. It is the culmination of extensive research into best practice and incorporates a value system within the rules for a pro-active active approach to behaviour modification. With the life coach in the wings, he is confident that the school will soon be reaping the fruits of the initiative.
But the victim’s mother is less upbeat. She says the school has never enquired about her son’s well-being and the accused has never even attempted to apologise. She expressed disappointment that, in her opinion, the bullies got away with little more than a rap over the knuckles and have been able to attend classes every day since the incident. Her indignation was amplified when her son’s assailant was later capped for the first team rugby and got to go on tour last weekend. This, she says, suggests that the school has taken a soft line against this kind of thuggery. It was this apparent inability (in her opinion) to satisfactorily deal with the issue that had spurred the family on to consider the legal route, she concluded.
While Botha says the school governing body deplores this kind of behaviour, especially on the school grounds, he told the Herald on Tuesday that the school is bound by the letter of the law. The disciplinary committee had meted out the maximum penalty for the culprits within the confines of national legislation, given that both were first offenders, he said.
“Unfortunately, these procedures are fertile ground for perceptions,” said Stafford, vehemently denying that either of them were given preferential treatment, based on their rugby involvement.
The principal of the school, Mr Roelof Oosthuizen, wanted to know why the Herald was interested in “a school fight” that, he says, occurs all over, all the time.
The incident comes less than two months after a similar incident was captured on a learner’s cell phone and exploded on social media. A learner from Krugerskraal School in Vereeniging made national headlines for beating up a fellow learner, in full view of a passive adult. At Gimmies, neither a teacher nor prefect was present for the duration of the episode.
In its feature on the former incident, Carte Blanche pointed out that this was by no means an isolated case. According to statistics, incidents of bullying at schools have tripled over the past year, alone. Isabella Gates, author and managing director of Life Talk, a youth and parenting forum, says bullying is at ‘”crisis levels.” The fact that the local incident happened in the hallowed halls of prestige academia proves that bullying is not limited to any given social grouping.
The misery of a victim came under the spotlight last Thursday, when a 15-year-old schoolboy from Umsilinga Primary School pleaded guilty to killing a fellow classmate because, he said, he had had enough of being bullied and being made fun of by his tormentor.
But, is the prominence of a rugby culture in SA to blame for this growing social problem? Just days before the Gimmies incident, Errol Musk, father of Elon Musk, world-renowned inventor and entrepreneur, said on News24 that he blames the “jock culture” for the bullying that his son had to endure, arguing that schools do not always take action against bullies, especially if they play for the schools’ rugby teams. Elon was beaten up so badly in Bryanston High School in the eighties that he was hospitalised for two weeks. Musk (snr) says boys are socialised into believing that physical force trumps brainpower.
We put this assertion to Dr Pieter Joubert, a local psychologist studying the phenomenon. He spoke to parents at Laerskool Mooi Rivier on Tuesday night and shared insights on what he called ‘narcissistic school bullies’ with the Herald.
“Without trying to generalise – some schools are increasingly focusing on “performance” and “winning at all costs” – to such an extent that the educational value of extra-curricular activities has largely become irrelevant. Gifted children that are emotionally immature are repeatedly told they are great, that they are special and that the school expects them to win at all costs.
The end result is often that such children, because of their emotional inability to deal objectively with their giftedness, become more and more narcissistic.
A narcissistic personality craves admiration, has a lack of empathy, has a grandiose sense of self-importance and expects to be recognised as superior to his or her peers. Furthermore, such a person tends to believe that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, and associate with, other special or high-status people or institutions. This person is often unwilling to recognise or identify with the feelings or needs of other “lesser mortals.” From here, it doesn’t take much for them to present with bullying behaviour, because they arrogantly believe that they are entitled to do so.”
