Cape Town – After being bullied at his primary school in Parow, a 13-year-old boy will have to undergo expensive surgery to repair the damage to his face.
Last Thursday, Corne Geyer was allegedly beaten by a Grade 7 pupil at their school, Parow West Primary.
The boy’s father, Donald Geyer, said the bully had allegedly been tormenting his son and he had been telling the school about the problem for two years.
“He indicated to my son vandag gaan jy op jou hel kry (today you will know hell). The bully then pushed my son and hit him in his face.” The incident has left the boy with a broken cheekbone and he struggles to see out of one of his eyes.
The father has been left fuming, saying the incident was “bound to take place as a result of the school’s incompetence”.
“I wrote to his teacher and the teacher told me he will be doing something about it.” The school declined to comment and referred the Cape Argus to the Western Cape Education Department (WCED).
Jessica Shelver, spokesperson for Education MEC Debbie Schäfer, said the incident was being investigated.
“We are very concerned with the violent and aggressive nature of the alleged incident. There is no place for bullying in any of our schools."
“The school is dealing with the matter in terms of their code of conduct and the perpetrator has been suspended pending a disciplinary hearing,” she said.
The boy will have to undergo reconstructive surgery to fix the damage.
“As parents you don’t expect something like this to happen to your child and it puts me and my wife in a financial predicament because we don’t have medical aid,” Geyer said.
According to the WCED, 81 cases of bullying were reported last year. “Many schools deal with bullying in terms of their school code of conduct and do not necessarily report incidents to our Safe Schools Directorate,” Shelver said.
South African Grade 5 pupils reported the “highest occurrence of bullying” out of 49 countries tested in an international study, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), conducted every four years, Africa Check reported.
Some 44% reported being bullying on a weekly basis while 34% reported monthly bullying.
“Of the boys in the study, 47% reported being bullied on a weekly basis. This compares to 40% of girls. Pupils in South Africa’s public schools are bullied more than those in independent schools. Close to 48% of pupils in no-fee schools reported being bullied ‘about weekly’ compared to about 25% of independent school pupils,” the report stated.
“Nearly 50% of Grade 9 pupils reported being bullied ‘about monthly’ Only Thailand and Botswana’s pupils reported being bullied more,” Africa Check said.