Having access to guns or other weapons makes it easier for some people to lash out against the things or people they don't like. If you see signs like these, tell a teacher, parent, or school counselor. A student who is showing signs like these may need help and support. And safety at school is up to everyone. If you have concerns about safety at school, reach out to an adult who will listen and help.
Many schools have set up ways to report bullying or signs of violence anonymously. Students can share concerns without giving their name. Find out if your school has something like this. If they don't, ask if they can set it up. Violence is an issue that many students care deeply about. They care about reducing violence at schools, in neighborhoods, in relationships, and in families.
Violence in schools may arise from different sources, occur in different forms, and involve different role players. It may also involve different actors at different times inside the school. School violence in South Africa has become a significant problem with frequent reports appearing in the written and electronic media about shootings, stabbings, and other forms of violence that occurred in both public and private schools.
The level of violence in advantaged and disadvantaged schools are not the same, as research has shown that geographic location has an impact on the level of violence that occurs in schools. Else argues that school violence is often the result of the spill-over of other forms of violence such as domestic violence and gangsterism, especially in impoverished areas.
Although the levels of violence in advantaged and disadvantaged schools vary, the main causes of violence in both categories are similar. According to the study conducted by Singh , the findings indicated that the main cause of violence in both categories was a lack of discipline at home.
Most of the offenders in schools are learners who are currently enrolled in schools or offenders, such as gang members, who trespass on school premises. Some of these trespassers may once have been students at that particular school but have dropped out. Socio-cultural factors determine what is socially accepted as being right or wrong in communities. These socio-cultural structures include family, the church, communities, and the law.
Unacceptable behaviour by learners includes theft, drug use, rape, murder and bullying, to mention a few. In a society where norms and values still apply, every illegal act perpetrated by the learners should be punished according to the law. There is no single cause of violence, but there are a number of factors that contribute to the culture of violence in schools. In order for one to understand the causes of violence, one needs to critically look at the broader context in which the school is situated, such as the community.
Factors such as low educational ambition are also associated with violence in adolescence. Bezuidenhout and Joubert identify the following causes of crime which have a negative impact on the culture of teaching and learning in South African schools:.
Individuals who have a history of being abused either by family members or other members of society are likely to become violent towards others, more especially if they are teenagers. Substance abuse also contributes to persons becoming violent towards others. For instance, teenagers who come from home environments that are abusive are more likely to become violent to others than teenagers who come from homes where they were nurtured and loved.
If violence is accepted in the home as a behavioural norm, it implies that it is acceptable to use violence to mistreat others, to disrespect others in one way or another, and that it is okay to physically assault other individuals because it is what is done at home. The communities that we live in have become institutions of violence. Communities where there are high levels of crime and violence will have a negative effect on teenagers.
In some of these communities teenagers are forced to become gang members and they get involved in illegal actives. We live in a society where the violence that takes place in communities is justified.
This implies that people who are violent have a certain level of power over other community members. Violence that occurs in the community spills over to schools which then turns schools into places for violence rather than being the safe havens we think they are.
Having identified some major causes of school violence, it is imperative to proffer solutions to this social ill. There should also be up-to-date security measures in schools and school-sponsored events, to ensure that students are properly searched and stripped of any kind of weapon before entering the premises.
The school buildings and school-sponsored events should also be properly guarded in order to quickly detect any possible threats of violence. The need to engage students in awareness campaigns cannot be overemphasized. Students should be counselled and enlightened on anger-management, conflict resolution, character development and a host of other topics that will help to deal with the psychological issues associated with school violence.
Adults should bear in mind that teenagers are impressionable and, as such, they tend to adopt their behavioral standards from what is obtainable in their households. Parents may also seek professional advice regarding the type of video games and television programs that children should be exposed to. In conclusion, the larger community such as non-governmental organizations should make concerted efforts to reach out to students and other youth in order to properly address issues of drug abuse, social anxieties and other forms of mental or affective disorders.
The legal system in less-developed nations should also be reviewed in order to accommodate specific laws for school violence. The government should also update statistical data on school violence, in order to further enlighten the general public about the menace. Violence in schools is a social problem with an enormous ripple effect- one act of violence can trigger numerous negative outcomes- hence, the community is expected to work as a whole in order to curb this social ill.
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