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Expert warns schools to take bullying seriously Ntandoyenkosi… Sun, 10/26/2025 - 10:00 CAPE TOWN - A Cape Town education specialist believes that most schools don t know how to deal with bullying. Milnerton High School does not have a bullying policy in place to address past and current reports. eNCA’s Nobesuthu Hejana reports that more videos of alleged bullying incidents are now coming out.Following the attack of a 16-year-old, eight pupils have appeared in court charged with assault.Education specialist Dr Nazli Domingo-Sallie says there needs to be a holistic way of dealing with bullying incidents in schools. That involves parents, children and the school’s management. She says schools have the responsibility of ensuring that all children are safe. You have the other children to protect, and as teachers in the South African schools act, there is a term called in loco parentis. That means we’ve got to act as parents. When you drop your child at school, your child has to feel the environment has to be safe. Let’s just fast forward: your child has just been bullied there, the principal has not provided a safe space, and the implications are huge. says Dr. Domingo-Sallie. Advocacy group Equal Education says while it condemns the incident, it does not believe that the Milnerton High School perpetrators should be expelled. But rather assisted through corrective measures. What we are asking for is that, yes, we agree they should be disciplined even if they do community service work and apologise to the families of their victims. But to expel them is not an answer, because it will ruin their future and even make things worse. Since the viral video came out, more videos have surfaced showing one of the teens that appeared in court beating up other boys in school. Another video also made the rounds on social media of the assault victim fighting another pupil.The department is now investigating this, but his family says he was only defending himself against a bully. SADTU wants the school to urgently address these cases. We have a campaign called that I am a school fan campaign. In that campaign we are calling for schools to be safe havens for all stakeholders, any learners who enters the school must feel protected the same as for teachers.” says Sibongile Kwatsha.On Friday, teaching and learning continued at the school with no disruptions.

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