Pinpointing the violence in South Africa's schools

THE suspicion that the bullying incident at Milnerton High School forms part of a larger pattern of a particular problem in high schools is not unreasonable.

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As would be the feeling that racial discrimination and learner-onlearner violence remains a stubborn problem at a particular group of schools, more than others.

Bluntly put, people generally suspect schools located in more affluent and white neighbourhoods as the most probable sites of racial prejudice and bullying cultures. Such binary thinking views less affluent schools in black neighbourhoods as hotbeds for protests for better and more teachers and teaching.