Parents and residents of Idas Valley protested at Lückhoff High School in Idas Valley, Stellenbosch, on Tuesday after a second bullying video came to light, Netwerk24 reported.

The video was shared on social media just days after a video surfaced which showed a girl being assaulted at the school. Instead of intervening, her school mates had taken a video of the attack.

In the second video, the attacker was also a girl. Some pupils tried to stop the fight.

The new video was only brought to the attention of the school and the Western Cape Education Department on Tuesday.

“We are concerned as a community and feel for the children. Our biggest concern is that nothing will be done, but the principal has assured us that steps will be taken,” said Donovon Joubert, an Idas Valley ward councillor.

The principal, Chris Jooste, said he had only heard about the video on Tuesday, when Child Protection Services called him.

The video shows a girl hitting another one. They’re not the same girls as those in the first video.

“I hadn’t known about the second incident, because it had never been reported to me,” said Jooste.

Disciplinary hearings have been scheduled in both cases, says Jessica Shelver, spokesperson for Education MEC Debbie Schäfer.

In the second video, a girl is confronted by another pupil who hits her with the fist.

Jooste says it is disconcerting that videos such as these are are popping up all of a sudden.

“It’s often what happens outside the school that spills over. We gathered from talks with the parents that bullying is a problem affecting the whole community and that we have to fight it together.”

‘Things can’t carry on as they are’

Jooste, who’d also attended the school, said he had also been the victim of bullies.

“However, this was much worse than that which I’d experienced, and it must stop.”

A relative of the victim in the second video said a charge had been laid against the attacker.

“We can’t allow this to happen. Children might become afraid of going to school and might end up committing suicide. Things can’t carry on as they are,” she said.

The first incident happened on November 24 and was reported to both the school and the provincial education department.

The victim’s mother said she hadn’t been contacted by the bully’s parents.

“It’s such a pity, because we are friends. My child hasn’t gone back to school since the attack because she is afraid.”

In the video, the bully is seen knocking the girl’s head against her knee, slapping her victim and pulling her hair.

She is scheduled to appear in the Stellenbosch Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.

The education department said the school had admitted that there were challenges and that its disciplinary measures had been insufficient.

[Source: News24]