I don't think they [the school administration] really know how it affects us. Maybe to them it is just a big joke-but to me-it is not to me. I was not laughing or playing. It's not a joke or game-it really bothers me.
MZ, age seventeen, sexually assaulted at school
Girls described a persistent response pattern
whereby schools discounted their reports of sexual violence and harassment
or failed to respond with any degree of seriousness. Girls were discouraged
from reporting abuse to school officials for a variety of reasons, not
the least of which was the hostile and indifferent responses they received
from their school communities. Sometimes school officials appear to have
failed to respond adequately because they simply did not know what to
do; other times they ignored the problem; still other times they appear
to have been afraid to assist. In many instances, schools actively discouraged
victims of school-based gender violence from alerting anyone outside the
school or accessing the justice system. In the worst cases, school officials
concealed the existence of violence at their schools and failed to cooperate
fully with authorities outside the school system.
The sad consequence of such responses is
that the problem is often placed squarely on the shoulders of girls. Many
girls have come to accept that sexual violence and harassment simply must
be endured if they are attending school. The failure of school authorities
to respond allows perpetrators of gender violence to act with impunity
and reinforces sex discrimination in schools. By contrast, when schools
responded to girls who reported abuse by supporting them, investigating
their claims, and confronting their attackers, girls reported feeling
safe and empowered.
Barriers to
Reporting Abuse
The difficulty girls face in reporting abuse
is the first barrier school officials must overcome in order to adequately
respond to the problem of sexual violence. Many opportunities to intervene
and prevent escalation of certain behaviors into violence are missed because
girls for a variety of reasons fail to report sexual violence. Girls told
Human Rights Watch that after they reported abuse not only were they not
supported, they were ridiculed and became the object of vicious rumors
at their schools. Many girls said they were afraid to
pursue their complaints for fear of further
violence; other girls simply felt reporting would be futile.
Fear is a major factor affecting whether
or not a girl will report abuse. Many children are afraid to come forward
or disclose when teachers abuse them because teachers use violence and
threats of violence to intimidate children into silence. MN, fifteen years
old, phoned Childline in September 1999 to report that her teacher had
been sexually abusing her. The intake operator summarized the call as
follows.
Caller's teacher abuses her. Always orders her to remain behind for maths...then follows to abuse her. Caller couldn't tell someone, teacher said nobody will believe her. Only her friend knows about this. Caller feels sad, scared and confused.205
A mother called Childline in August 1997 to report that her daughter had been sexually abused at school by a trainee teacher and that she struggled to help her child overcome her fears of disclosing the abuse. The call record notes:
Mother called re her child [who] was being sexually abused by a student teacher. [M]other did complain to the principal and she was requested to write a letter which will be sent to the department. [The teacher] scolded her [the child] and threatened to hit her. [N]ow the child is afraid to give any further details. Mom wanted to know if it will be okay for the child to call one of the counselors.206
Experts and social workers we interviewed told us that teachers use their status and authority to intimidate children into sexual relations.207 Fear keeps many children quiet about abuse, one social worker explained:
Sex abuse by teachers is there, it just goes unreported. People look up to teachers. Even if a child knows it's wrong, they are confused. If I tell-the teacher may fail me or hit me. Corporal punishment remains a problem in schools. Kids fear that they won't be believed and fear what may happen to them if they tell.208
Similarly, most girls do not complain about
the bulk of abuse inflicted on them by male classmates because, as one
girl explained, "girls are too shy or too scared to speak up."209
Girls are not only afraid of continued violence, but also the negative
reactions of their peers. When two classmates sexually assaulted seventeen-year-old
MZ, a girl attending a Durban metropolitan area high school, she bravely
alerted school authorities, putting aside peer pressure not to speak out,
but later questioned her decision and even felt she had to justify her
decision to speak out to her friends. MZ explained: "My friend didn't
even want to report it. She said it was no big deal. Others thought so
too. It's not affected us in the same way, she's over it. She says they
were drunk and we should just forget about it-but I can't forget."210
Although the two students sexually assaulted several girls at school that
day, MZ was the only one who came forward. "I can't say my friends
have been supportive, but I am coping."211
Some girls who did report abuse to school
officials said they feared violent retaliation from their attackers and,
feeling powerless, chose not to press their claims. A seventeen-year-old
girl who elected not to pursue formal charges against her classmates after
an attempted rape because she feared them explained: "The teacher
asked me if she could tell the police. I told her that they'll be expelled
and they'll wait at the bus and do something bad to me because of me they'll
have been expelled. So I'll just forgive them. So we just made the case
dissolve."212
She accepted having little control over the situation because she could
not confront the boys on their terms, explaining her decision to Human
Rights Watch: "They apologized and I told them I forgive them. I
must forgive them. There is no choice. I didn't want to forgive them.
Because I'm a girl I can't fight them." Having learned submission
as a survival skill and accepting that no one could keep her safe, MB
simply took it as her place as a girl to be the object of violence.
Counselors assisting child victims of sexual
abuse maintain that the way girls are treated after a rape or sexual assault
by their peers, teachers, school officials, and sometimes even their friends
and family, is the reason why most attacks go unreported.213
Girls feel they are not valued when they perceive attacks against them
are not taken seriously by school administrators. The lack of proportionality
in the punishment of attacks emboldens students who would perpetrate violence
against others.
The silence surrounding sexual violence for
many girls grows into a resigned acceptance that unwanted and unwelcome
sexual behaviors simply must be endured in educational settings. Girls
learn to acquiesce to the violence because often they receive little support
from their peers at school or from school officials.
Indifferent
or Inadequate Response
The abuse girls experience at school is often
magnified by the reactions they receive when they report abuse to school
officials. Girls who did report abuse told Human Rights Watch that school
officials responded with indifference, disbelief, and hostility. Schools
that do not take sexual violence and harassment seriously provide support
for those who would commit violence against girls.
Many girls feel it is of little use to report
problems, having learned that in most instances little or nothing will
be done to their male classmates by school authorities, so the abuse continues.
One girl explained: "They [boys who abuse] are happy to stay home.
They enjoy being suspended, it's their favorite thing. By doing something
stupid at school they have a free day off and in the end they just come
back and do the same thing again anyway."214
Another girl expressed her frustration about the futility of speaking
out; "I don't report anything anymore. I feel it's unnecessary. I'm
just wasting my time."215
Dissatisfied with her school's response to
her sexual assault complaint, MZ told Human Rights Watch that she questioned
her decision to come forward. Contemplating whether she had done the right
thing by bringing the incident to the attention to school administrators,
MZ said: "I don't know, maybe, I'm still trying to figure out what
to do. I wanted to show them that they can't get away with everything.
I think more should have been done to them after what they did. If there
was something I could do, I'd have done it long ago."216
AC, a fourteen-year-old pupil at a school
in Mitchell's Plain, near Cape Town, no longer questions whether she should
report violence to school officials. As she told Human Rights Watch, she
knows better than to bother. AC felt her concerns were simply disregarded
by school administrators when she complained to a school official about
being beaten up by a boy in class after "talking back to him."
I left class and went to the principal's office and told. The principal told me to "go back to class and bring the boy here to the office." I went back to class and told him the principal wanted to see him, but he didn't come. So I went back to the principal's office. He told me to go back and tell him he'd be expelled if he didn't come to the office. So finally he came, and all the principal told him was "stop-if you're beating girls already you'll grow up to beat your wife." He didn't get detention. Nothing. I don't report anything anymore. I feel it's unnecessary. I'm just wasting my time.217
AC is not so much afraid of violence as
she is resigned that it is simply a reality of her education experience.
Girls reported that unwanted, controlling,
abusive, and humiliating interactions including sexual assault and harassment
are still viewed as a game by some boys, and not taken seriously by school
authorities.218
One fifteen-year-old student told Human Rights Watch that boys treated
sexual harassment as a game: "When you tell them to `stop', when
you say `no,' they are just laughing and keep on doing the same thing."219
When boys are confronted by school officials
with allegations of sexual assault, girls repeatedly said that boys will
claim they were just `joking' or `playing,' and then expect the explanation
to suffice. Too often it does. One seventeen-year-old girl told Human
Rights Watch about the reaction of her classmates when confronted by her
allegations of attempted rape: "I told a teacher about what happened...They
told the teacher they were just playing. But they weren't just playing
because they were serious. They weren't playing when they were hitting
me and ripping my clothes."220
Her attackers were not disciplined.
Human Rights Watch did meet with one school
official who asserted that he responded promptly and decisively to the
problems of sexual violence and harassment in his school. He told us that
the school had gone so far as to recently suspend two boys who sexually
assaulted female students. The school granted our request to interview
one of the students assaulted, seventeen-year-old MZ. She confirmed that
the school had in fact suspended the two boys who attacked her-but for
only three days. MZ did not feel that she was taken seriously after she
reported the incident, nor did she feel the school's response was sufficient.
The action was not enough to make MZ feel better, as she still must confront
her attackers every day at school: "They are back here right now-when
I see them I feel like vomiting. They aren't in matric so they'll be around
for some time."221
In other cases, schools may not respond at
all. An anonymous boy called Childline in July 1997 on behalf of his sister
to report that a teacher was sexually abusing her at her school in Chatsworth.222
Instead of expressing concern when confronted with allegations by a Childline
counselor, the school gave no credence to the charge. The investigating
counselor noted: "I called the school. Spoke to the principal, he
laughed at the allegations-because the alleged perpetrator is the vice-principal
of the school."223
Ostracizing and Marginalizing Victims
When [MC] went through hell at school that made it easier for me to come forward [to police] because I knew I wasn't the only one. I thought if you're the only one it is your word against his.
PC, age fifteen
The injury does not end with the assault
for girls who report or speak out against violence. Girls fear ridicule
and rejection by the school community. When girls come forward, they are
often ridiculed and rejected by their peers, male and female alike. For
instance, the boys who were alleged to have raped thirteen-year-old WH
would tease her at school. Other students would call her "liar."
After WH brought charges against her rapists, she told Human Rights Watch
that "All the people who I thought were my friends had turned against
me."224
WH's mother told Human Rights Watch that other students would call their
home and harass her daughter. WH's teacher allegedly spread rumors about
WH and the merits of the case against the boys.225
WH felt cast out by the school administration while no action was taken
by the school against the alleged perpetrators.
A recently retired teacher explained that
in her experience schools do not aid victims of violence: "Schools
find sexual abuse embarrassing and oftentimes will attempt to sweep it
under the carpet. The survivor is left to swim or sink, there are no support
structures designed to assist. The victim runs a risk of not being believed,
ostracized, or being ridiculed."226
Often the hostility is severe enough for children to simply drop their
allegations, one social worker explained:
I had a case of a series of girls who were being fondled at school by a teacher. Two girls spoke up, but then one withdrew her complaint. The other child received no support from the other teachers or the school community. It's too much for a child to pursue alone. In the end the teacher responded: "she's just accusing me because she has a crush on me."227
Girls also reported that their classmates and sometimes school officials ridiculed and rejected them after they came forward and schools did nothing to intervene.
Lack of Procedures
and Ignorance of Existing Policy
Human Rights Watch interviewed South African
teachers, school principals, education policy experts, and social workers
concerning policies to address sexual violence in schools. They uniformly
said they were unaware of any standard procedural guidelines provided
to schools by the national or provincial education departments on how
schools should treat those who are accused of sexual violence or harassment
or accommodate victims of sexual violence in their schools. Human Rights
Watch contacted the national Department of Education and the provincial
departments of areas where we documented abuses to inquire about gender
violence policies. We were unable to obtain a copy of any policy guidelines
specifically addressing the problem of sexual violence in schools from
the national department. Only the Western Cape education department responded
that it was nearing completion of a gender violence policy.
School employees Human Rights Watch interviewed
complained that they had not received procedures or guidance about how
to address gender violence in their schools and called for increased assistance
on the issue. One consultant working with the Western Cape education department
and counseling adolescent rape victims in the area observed: "Teachers
haven't been prepared for it, schools don't know how to handle it, and
above all schools don't want their name tarnished."228
Emphasizing the need for expanded training on sexual violence issues,
a teacher from Mitchell's Plain agreed: "We're not equipped, but
I just go on my instincts. There's no guidance."229
While the instincts of some teachers are better than others, a girl's
safety at school should not depend on a teacher's instincts, but rather
on clear procedures to address complaints of sexual violence.
A vice principal of a school in Cato Manor,
near Durban, also told Human Rights Watch that her school lacked procedures,
"No, we weren't given a procedure on how to deal with abuse from
the Department of Education."230
A former teacher who had worked in five different schools over a period
of fourteen years in KwaZulu-Natal summed up the situation in her experience
as follows:
In black schools in the townships, there is definitely no formal effort to evaluate the problem. At times it is not even viewed as a problem worthy of attention at all. In some areas it is seen as a great privilege for a child to be at school at all. There are far more urgent issues to worry about such as shelter and food than to be worried about children's rights. So there are no standard procedures for reporting abuse. Pupils, should they be brave enough, will approach any teacher on the issue, like they would on any other issue, and it may be ignored.231
Students are also without guidance. Schools
have made few efforts to inform children and parents of their rights and
the responsibilities of their school in developmentally appropriate language.
The lack of a broadly disseminated policy
on sexual violence has resulted in considerable confusion among school
management on how to confront the problem. Some teachers expressed a desire
to help their students, but felt they could not or did not know how to
do so. Misconceptions abounded about what a school could or should do
to prevent, investigate and punish sexual violence. For example, one educator
was under the impression that "if a parent doesn't want to go to
police [about a rape] there is nothing we can do because these things
occur. I don't think we can do anything [to the accused] until he's proven
guilty, we cannot just expel or suspend him because the parents can sue
us."232
Because of the failure of the national and provincial education departments
to promptly establish and to broadly disseminate a comprehensive policy
or procedural guidelines, gaps remain in efforts to prevent, investigate,
and punish sexual violence in schools.
Some key problems we identified associated
with the lack of a widely disseminated and actively enforced policy to
end sexual violence and harassment of girls at school include: victims
remain in classes with offenders and are ostracized and ridiculed by other
students; victims leave school due to the hostile environment and indifference
to their needs after assault; offending teachers and students are not
disciplined or prosecuted; teachers who have repeatedly engaged in sexual
misconduct with underage children are not barred from the profession;
there is no reliable measure of the extent of sexual violence and harassment
in schools; and there is no accountability when schools allowed gender
violence to occur unchallenged or concealed instances of abuse.
The teachers are scared. I can see it, there is a genuine threat to them, it is not a perceived thing. You may have seventeen to nineteen-year-olds with firearms running the school.
Prosecutor, Durban
Everyone is scared for themselves. If you try and take things up you may find yourself in big trouble.
Teacher, township near Johannesburg
Aside from the absence of guidelines on
sexual violence, fear for their own safety may sometimes hinder school
officials from responding to student complaints. Violence in schools may
pose risks for teachers as well as students.233
Viewing schools as prime places for recruiting new members and selling
drugs, violent gangs frequently infiltrate schools.234
Teachers told Human Rights Watch that gang-affiliated students carry weapons
to school, challenge school officials, and undermine teachers. Gang-affiliated
students may also carry their conflicts with them, posing risks to everyone
at school. A Mitchell's Plain teacher told us of the difficulties presented
by a student in her class who was believed to be involved in an area gang
shooting, "There were rumors that there would be a retaliation hit
against [the student], and he sits in my class endangering all the others.
I am scared of becoming a casualty."235
In some areas, teachers are simply afraid for their own safety and fear
prevents them from intervening to help their students.
Fear of violent retaliation has stopped one township
teacher outside Johannesburg from reporting any student crime to police, after
she was personally threatened. She told Human Rights Watch that her school has
decided to place the burden of bringing complaints of violence to the police
on students: "For us to be safe as individual teachers, the student victim
must report the case on her own. I advise kids to go to the police."236
Shielding Perpetrators and Concealing Abuse
If the abuser is from outside [school], then schools are very supportive, they'll even bring the child in to see us [at Childline counseling center]. But there's a lot of defensiveness if the accused is a teacher, then it becomes the child is lying, or it was a seductive child, or the child wanted it.
Andrea Engelbrecht, Childline counselor
Schools have done nothing about it. Teachers who abuse have been transferred to other schools. Most often, that will happen if anything happens at all to the teacher.
Rachel Jewkes, Acting Director, Women's Health Research Unit, Medical Research Council
Despite statutory obligations to report
child abuse,237
when a school employee is accused of committing sexual assault, a common
response of school officials is to try to keep the problem within the
school community by concealing the existence of abuse and shielding from
scrutiny those alleged to have committed acts of sexual violence. Schools
often appear to identify criminal conviction as the only point at which
an alleged perpetrator should be separated from his victim, through suspension,
expulsion, or dismissal from employment. However, in most instances of
sexual violence a conviction is not likely.
The case of MC, described above in chapter
V, is illustrative. Although MC's parents complained to the school about
the teacher, the school failed to contact police and the teacher remained
on the job. The principal of MC's school allegedly told her parents not
to alert the police to the sexual abuse occurring at the school.238
MC's mother described her meeting with the school to Human Rights Watch:
We met with the principal. I told him "my daughter has been raped by one of your teachers." I asked what the school intended to do? What should I do? And I told them I was going to go to the police. The Principal said "don't go to the police until we can talk to the school's lawyer to determine what to do. Don't do anything until we can go to the school board to get this cleared up." He told me "you should not do anything until we talk to the school lawyer, you mustn't go to the CPU [police Child Protection Unit] until the school board can sort out what the school is to do."239
The school did nothing to sanction the teacher or to help the child. The teacher continued in his teaching duties at the school long after MC's parents confronted the school about the rape, leaving MC and other girls vulnerable to his further abuse.240 In this instance, because several schools had similarly opted in the past to conceal this teacher's conduct rather than initiate administrative action against him or report him to police, he remained free to go on to different schools and new children, abusing his authority and taking advantage of their trust. The teacher had previously been permitted to resign without censure from another school where he taught, after similar incidents were reported against him.
One counselor, working on the case of a
girl who had allegedly been raped by a school caretaker, told Human Rights
Watch that generally it is not that school officials do not know what
action to take, but rather that "basically schools are covering their
butts-schools are being run as businesses. Funding is dependent on enrollment.
Bad publicity would be bad. Most teachers have the attitude, `let's keep
away' or `let's not get involved' or `it can't be happening at our school.'"241
She explained her frustrations with what she perceived to be a school's
evasiveness in one of her current cases: "I went with the girl's
mother to speak with the principal. The principal would not even acknowledge
the possibility that the rape had happened, and the medical evidence has
shown that an adult sexually abused the child. I told him-`if this man
is the perpetrator in this case you are putting other kids at risk.'"242
The tendency of schools to shield perpetrators
and conceal abuse allegations potentially places numerous children at
risk while offering those who have sexually abused students refuge and
access to victims within the school system. The mother of TM, an eighteen-year-old
student, called Childline in May 1997 to report concerns that a teacher
was attempting to sexually abuse TM. She later learned her daughter had
not been the teacher's only victim. The student told her mother that on
two separate occasions in May, the teacher kissed her and touched her
bottom. According to the Childline counselor:
The teacher had been asking her questions about relationships-whether she has boyfriends. He used to call her father at work to tell him that [the girl] needs private lessons because her performance is so poor. The parents refused because they didn't like the question that he asks their child.243
TM's mother met with the principal and was
surprised to learn that the principal already knew of at least two other
reported cases. 244
It is far from clear what further evidence this particular principal would
have required to take action, if repeated complaints from parents and
students were perceived to be insufficient.
Before taking a voluntary leave of absence,
a high school teacher in Bishop Lavis continued in his teaching duties
for nearly a year after he had allegedly raped DN, a seventeen-year-old
student, in an empty school hall in September 1998. DN disclosed the rape
to a friend, who told the school guidance counselor, who then reported
the rape to the principal. The school took no action against the teacher.245
A criminal case against the teacher is currently pending.
A Rustenburg teacher remains employed after
allegedly raping a student and will likely face no criminal sanction.
BG, fifteen, phoned Childline in October 1999 from Rustenburg to talk
about her feelings after she was raped by her teacher. The Childline operator
summarized the call as follows.
A year ago the caller was raped by her teacher. She told a female teacher who told the school principal. Parents were also told. Rape charges were filed. School Principal persuaded her mother to drop the charges. Promised to take care of the matter. Nothing has been done yet. Caller finds it difficult to "cope" after the incident. Studies are deteriorating. The teacher still teaches at the same school. Caller never received any counseling. Needs some. Caller sounds very optimistic, but feels disappointed by her mother and school principal.246
As in BG's case, school response is often
to urge the family to remain silent and not to alert police about abuse
with a promise that the matter will be handled internally. Repeatedly,
parents told Human Rights Watch that schools asked them not to get the
police involved or draw publicity to problems at school. Usually it was
publicity and parent protest that prompted any school action. When parents
learn that their child has been a victim of violence at school, school
officials encourage the parents to deal with the matter within the school,
as further demonstrated by LB's case, detailed in chapter V above.
Not only have schools failed to report abuse
to police, in some instances schools have failed to alert parents about
incidents that occur at school. A prosecutor working on the case of a
girl abducted from school by her "boyfriend" told Human Rights
Watch how the school failed to alert the child's parents about the abduction:
I had a case of a schoolgirl with a taxi driver boyfriend. He would abduct the girl from class; she'd be missing for days. On one day that she was abducted her father went to the school and asked, "where is my daughter." He hadn't been called immediately after she'd been taken away, and even after he asked the teachers they told him nothing. It was the other students who finally told him that a man came and took his daughter away.247
Failure to Cooperate with Investigators
It is rare that you find schools helping, teachers and principals turn a blind eye. It's like the child is on his or her own. Everyone is scared for themselves. If you try and take things up you may find yourself in big trouble.
Hlengiwe Magwaza, Childline counselor
In our interviews with police, prosecutors, and social workers, schools and the education system were criticized for their roles in facilitating sexual violence by failing to fully cooperate with investigations. One prosecutor said that in her experience:
Schools tend to play a standoffish role. They don't want to know about it, especially if it is on their premises-bad publicity. We haven't had any school come forward or teachers trying to help us on any cases when abuse occurs in school.248
Police officials made similar observations, saying that schools rarely reported sexual violence in the first instance. The Senior Superintendent Commander of the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offenses Unit of the South African Police Service observed:
Most often children report to police directly, by themselves or in the alternative parents will report. Rarely do schools report. Years ago school abuse always stayed within the system, it would wind up in the hands of an educational psychologist, it would have been dealt with in the school system. Schools have a better understanding. There is more openness, but the fact remains that most abuse at school is reported by kids and their parents, not schools.249
A prosecutor told Human Rights Watch that in her experience schools could not be relied upon to assist with investigations, particularly where a school employee is the accused:
I had another case in a preschool of a caretaker who allegedly molested a young girl. There was physical evidence. Her vagina was red, irritated. During the course of the investigation prior to trial, I got a call from the school wanting to discuss the case with me. So I went to the school expecting, perhaps naively, their support. Instead they were positively hostile towards me and aggressively in support of their caretaker. Telling me how he'd worked there for years, he's in his fifties. Basically what it came down to for them was the child was the one with the problem.250
A social worker attempting to investigate allegations of sexual abuse against a schoolteacher described the negative experience she had with the school management as follows:
Once I approached the Department of Education with a case, asking about a teacher's [an allegedly sexually abusive] work history. They were useless. No record of why he'd resigned from several schools before this latest one. He was never reprimanded or monitored. I'll never call on the Department again. The school wasn't helpful either. The teacher stayed at the school for some time because there were no witnesses to the abuse.251
Inappropriate
Responses
In the absence of clear guidelines and lacking
awareness of how to confront sexual violence, even the most well intentioned
teachers may discipline students in ways that are unproductive, sometimes
reinforcing violence as a legitimate means of confronting problems.
Human Rights Watch is opposed to the use
of corporal punishment against children in schools, however that violence
is rationalized.252
Just as challenging routine domestic violence against women has been a
vital part of the advancement of women's rights, challenging physical
assaults on children disguised as corrective discipline is vital to improving
children's status. Human Rights Watch is encouraged by the national Department
of Education's efforts to end the practice of corporal punishment in schools
with its recently released guidelines to teachers on alternatives to corporal
punishment.253
Supporting
Victims of Violence
In those instances where schools officials
immediately responded to girls who reported abuse, by believing them,
seriously investigating allegations, and confronting the attackers in
a way that ensured abusive behavior would not remain a threat, girls reported
feeling safe and empowered.
For example, when seventeen-year-old NN told
her teacher that she had been beaten by a male student from a neighboring
school, she was gratified to be believed and supported. The boy had come
to NN's school, sought her out, and beat her because she had refused to
date him. NN was pleased at her teacher's decisive response:
I told a teacher and we went to this boy's school together to complain. He is now in jail. He raped another girl and he was caught. I was happy with my school's response. 254
Although it is not clear whether NN's teacher
had much to do with preventing future attacks against NN, she explained
that she was happy with the response of her teacher because she received
his support. He listened to her and took prompt action on her behalf to
protest her attacker's behavior. Sadly, many other girls are not as fortunate.
Experts working on sexual harassment in schools
have found most effective those interventions in which school authorities
take a proactive stance in confronting sexual violence and harassment,
respect the wishes and confidentially of the student victims, and offer
the students feedback on how their complaints have been handled.255
According to experts, most effective are schools that act swiftly and
unequivocally to end harassment, offering the target of abuse a variety
of options for redress, ranging from an opportunity to confront the offender
in a safe and supervised space, to school enforced "stay-a-ways"
requiring separation of the victim from the perpetrator for a finite time
with teacher oversight and sanctions for violation.
205 Childline call record, September 1999.
206 Childline call record, August 1997.
207 Human Rights Watch interview with Tinka Labuschagne, Say No to Child Abuse Alliance, Johannesburg, March 16, 2000.
208 Human Rights Watch interview with Xoliswa Keke, Childline, Durban, March 29, 2000.
209 Human Rights Watch interview with DA, age fifteen, Durban, April 5, 2000.
210 Human Rights Watch interview with MZ, age seventeen, Durban, April 4, 2000.
211 Ibid.
212 Human Rights Watch interview with MB, age seventeen, Durban, April 5, 2000.
213 Human Rights Watch interview with Lynn Cawood, Childline, Johannesburg, March 14, 2000.
214 Human Rights Watch interview with NN, age seventeen, Durban, April 5, 2000.
215 Human Rights Watch interview with AC, age fourteen, Mitchell's Plain, April 15, 2000.
216 Human Rights Watch interview with MZ, age seventeen, Durban, April 4, 2000.
217 Human Rights Watch interview with AC, age fourteen, Mitchell's Plain, April 15, 2000.
218 Andersson, Beyond Victims and Villains, p 56. One in every ten male youths surveyed in CIETafrica's study thought jack-rolling or "magintsa" [gang rape] was "cool."
219 Human Rights Watch interview with NJ, age sixteen, Durban, April 5, 2000.
220 Human Rights Watch interview with MB, age seventeen, Durban, April 5, 2000.
221 Human Rights Watch interview with MZ, age seventeen, Durban, April 4, 2000.
222 Childline call record, July 1997.
223 Ibid.
224 Human Rights Watch interview with WH, age thirteen, Johannesburg, March 18, 2000.
225 Human Rights Watch interview with WH's mother, March 18, 2000.
226 Human Rights Watch interview with Sthokozo Nxumalo, Resources Aimed At the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (RAPCAN), Cape Town, April 17, 2000. RAPCAN is a nongovernmental organization committed to developing child abuse prevention strategies to combat patterns of abuse through training and advocacy.
227 Human Rights Watch interview with Linda Dhabicharam, Childline, Durban, March 28, 2000.
228 Human Rights Watch interview with Ursula Higgins, youth advocate, Cape Town, April 12, 2000.
229 Human Rights Watch interview with Sharon Moore, teacher, April 14, Cape Town 2000.
230 Human Rights Watch interview with vice principal, Cato Manor, April 5, 2000.
231 Human Rights Watch interview with Sthokozo Nxumalo, RAPCAN, Cape Town, April 7, 2000.
232 Human Rights Watch interview with vice principal, Cato Manor, April 5, 2000.
233 Human Rights Watch interview with teacher, Alexandra Township, March 27, 2000; Human Rights Watch interview with teacher, Mitchell's Plain, April 14, 2000; Human Rights Watch interview with teacher, Cape Flats, April 12, 2000.
234 Richard Griggs, "School Violence: A Culture of Learning About Drugs, Thugs and Guns," ChildrenFirst, February/March 1998, p. 7.
235 Human Rights Watch interview with teacher, Mitchell's Plain, April 14, 2000.
236 Human Rights Watch interview with teacher, Alexandra township, March 27, 2000.
237 South African legislation, including the Child Care Act 86 of 1991, as amended, Section 42, establishes mandatory reporting of child abuse. According to the South African Law Commission, although the duty to report initially rested only on medical and dental personnel, the legislature subsequently decided to impose a duty to report on teachers. Pursuant to statutory obligations to report child abuse, any person who examines, treats, attends to, advises, instructs, or cares for a child must report abuse to a police official or child welfare. Failure to comply with statutory reporting requirements constitutes an offense punishable upon conviction by a fine not exceeding R4,000 or imprisonment not exceeding one year or both. Once a report has been made, further action must be taken. South African Law Commission, "Review of the Child Care Act," Issue Paper 13, Project 110 (1998). For further discussion of the statutory obligation to report child abuse see N. Van Dokkum, "The Statutory Obligation to Report Child Abuse and Neglect," in Raylene Keightley (ed.), Children's Rights (Kenwyn: Juta and Co., Ltd., 1996).
238 Human Rights Watch interview with MC's mother, Johannesburg, March 18, 2000.
239 Ibid.
240 Charlene Smith, "Rape Accused Continues to Teach," Mail and Guardian, September 1, 1999.
241 Human Rights Watch interview with Shamona Reddy, social worker, Johannesburg, March 23, 2000.
242 Ibid.
243 Childline call record, May 1997.
244 Childline call record, May 1997.
Called [TM's mother]. She spoke to the principal who revealed that the teacher had done the same thing last year but she couldn't do much because there was not much evidence. Yesterday morning another girl went into his classroom and he kissed her. The girl told the principal.
245 Human Rights Watch interview with Mallory Issacs, Childline, Bishop Lavis, April 14, 2000.
246 Childline call record, October 30, 1999.
247 Human Rights Watch interview with Val Melis, Senior Public Prosecutor, Durban, April 3, 2000.
248 Ibid.
249 Human Rights Watch interview with Anneke Pienaar, Commander: Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit, Pretoria, March 20, 2000.
250 Human Rights Watch interview with Val Melis, Senior Public Prosecutor, Durban, April 3, 2000.
251 Human Rights Watch interview with Linda Dhabicharam, Childline, Durban, March 29, 2000.
252 See Human Rights Watch, "Spare the Child: Corporal Punishment in Kenyan Schools," A Human Rights Watch Report, vol. 11, no. 6(A), September 1999.
253 Department of Education, Alternatives to Corporal Punishment (Pretoria: Department of Education, October 2000).
254 Human Rights Watch interview with NN, age seventeen, Durban, April 5, 2000.
255 See, for example, Stein, Classrooms and Courtrooms, pp. 83-94.