'SA schools most dangerous in the world'

South African schools were the most dangerous in the world with only 23
percent of pupils saying they felt safe at school, the SA Institute of
Race Relations (SAIRR) said on Tuesday.

Spokesperson for the Institute, Thomas Blaser, said a Progress in
International Reading Literacy study had ranked SA last in terms of
school safety.

"In that study South African school pupils were asked whether they felt
safe when they were at school and if they had experienced incidents of
stealing, bullying, and injury to themselves or to others in their class
within the last four weeks.

"Only 23 percent of South African pupils said they felt safe at school.
On average South Africa's schools ranked more than 20 percentage points
below the world-wide average of 47 percent of pupils saying they felt a
high degree of safety in the classroom," said Blaser.

Schools in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden were the safest in the world with
approximately 70 percent of pupils saying they felt safe at school.

Blaser said: "The findings of the study suggested that media reports of
school violence were not merely isolated incidents but part of a growing
pattern of violence and disorder."

According to the department of education's own data, published in the
SAIRR report, 24 percent of schools had no burglar bars, 35 percent had
no security gates, and 80 percent had no alarm systems.

"Conditions in many schools are not only far from ideal but in many
cases downright dangerous. The problem deserves urgent attention in
parliament and needs a national safety plan that will return proper law
and order to the school ground," said Blaser.

"Failing this it is difficult to see how schools will produce the skills
necessary to drive the South African economy."

The SAIRR called for urgent government intervention to halt a "growing
pattern of violence and disorder" in SA schools, said Blaser. - Sapa

'Corrective rape happens at school'

Corrective rape, where a male pupil rapes a female lesbian pupil to
"make her heterosexual", was a growing phenomenon in schools, the SA
Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) said in a report released on Wednesday.

A gay and lesbian rights group told the commission during public
hearings that homosexual pupils experienced "high levels of prejudice"
at school resulting in "exclusion, marginalisation and victimisation".

"There is a growing phenomenon of corrective rape. This refers to an
instance where a male learner rapes a lesbian female learner in the
belief that after such a sexual attack the learner will no longer be
lesbian," the report said.

It said heterosexism and homophobia fuelled discrimination against gay
and lesbian pupils in South African schools.

"Within the school environment there is a clear need to place the LGBT
[lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] issues within a human rights
framework and to engage religious values."

OUT, a gay and lesbian rights NGO, was involved in training programmes
and policy development to curb violence against homosexual pupils.

The organisation told the commission there were high drop-out rates
among LGBT pupils and discrimination against them often led to suicide
and substance abuse.

During public hearings the commission was informed that xenophobia also
contributed toward violent incidents in South African schools.

"... [in] particularly those schools that attract non-national learners.
In these schools, discrimination on the grounds of ethnic, racial or
social origin may well be a contributing factor to the violence." - Sapa

Quickwire

Published on the Web by IOL on 2008-03-12 13:04:55
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New school pledge

*/Creed of the white kid /**/

We are sorry that our ancestors were intelligent, advanced and daring
enough to explore the wild oceans to discover new countries and to
conquer and develop these.

We are sorry that those who came before us took you out of the bush and
taught you that there was more to life than beating drums and chasing
animals with sticks and stones.

We are sorry that they planned, funded and developed roads, towns,
mines, factories, airports, all of which you now claim to be your long
deprived inheritance so you have full right to change and rename these
at your discretion.

We are sorry that our parents taught us the value of small but strong
families, to not breed like rabbits and end up as underfed, illiterate
shack dwellers living in poverty.

We are sorry that when they provided you with schools, you decided it
looked better without windows or in piles of ashes. We happily gave up
those bad days of getting spanked in our all white schools for doing
something wrong, and much prefer these days of freedom where problems
can be resolved with knives and guns.

We are sorry that it is hard to shake off the bitterness of the past
when you keep on raping, torturing and killing our friends and family
members, and then hide behind the fence of "human rights" with smiles on
your faces.

We are sorry that we do not trust the government. We have no reason to
be so suspicious and short sighted seeing that there has never been a
case where any of these poor hard working intellectuals were involved in
any form of corruption or irregularities.

We are sorry that we do not trust the police force and although they
have openly admitted that they have lost the war against crime and
criminals, we should not be so negative and just keep on hoping for the
best.

We are sorry that we basically flung open our border posts, and now left
you competing for jobs against illegal immigrants from our beautiful
neighbouring countries. All these countries that have grown so strong
after kicking out the "settlers", you should follow their excellent
example and grow big and strong like them!

We are sorry that we don't believe in witchcraft, beetroot and garlic,
urinating on street corners or trading woman for cattle, maybe we just
grew up differently. So sorry that when we are forced into sharing the
same establishments, sometimes we lose our temper, that is totally
uncalled for.

We are sorry that your medical care, water supplies, roads, and your
electrical supplies are going down the toilet because skilled people who
could have planned and resolved these issues had to be shown away
because they were of the wrong ethnic background and now has to work in
foreign countries where their skills are more needed.

We are so sorry and should really try harder to be more tolerant and
learn to get along with EVERYBODY around us, one big happy family.

The Dumb White Kid/*