Schools must transition from being environments that potentially reinforce violence into powerful platforms that disrupt it, writes Patrick Burton.
The recent footage that emerged from Milnerton High School, showing a pupil being physically and verbally assaulted by older pupils while others stood by, has once again drawn attention to the ongoing violence that characterises the school and learning experience of so many children in South Africa.
The incident came a few weeks before an anti-bullying week, an annual campaign that aims to draw attention to the ongoing prevalence and harm of bullying in schools and elsewhere.
It is hardly an isolated incident; rather, it emerged as a visceral reminder of a deep-seated culture of bullying, power and violence rooted in toxic power dynamics and governance failures that haunt too many schools.
Common drivers
While a swift response – precautionary suspensions, charges where relevant, and political condemnation – is necessary for accountability, we stop short of punitive measures.
As noted in the 2025 Child Gauge on the intersections of violence against women and violence against children, if we are to address violence meaningfully, we must adopt systemic, evidence-based prevention paradigms that disrupt the intergenerational cycle of abuse and shift the emphasis from response to prevention.
The Milnerton incident, amplified via social media, is a potent reminder that violence against children and violence against women are often interconnected phenomena, sharing common drivers grounded in cultures of coercion, control, and patriarchal norms.
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As argued in the 2008 and 2012 National School Violence Studies by the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention, schools serve as a microcosm of society, and the violence witnessed there often reinforces or mirrors the abuse children experience at home or in the community. In particular, school-related gender-based violence is intrinsically linked to gender norms and power imbalances that reinforce male dominance over others.
When violence is tolerated, or even tacitly condoned, children learn fear and distrust, acquire negative social capital, and develop distorted perceptions of self-worth. This normalisation of violence increases the risk of later victimisation and perpetration as learners move into adulthood.
Schools must transition from being environments that potentially reinforce violence into powerful platforms that disrupt it. This requires a comprehensive whole-school approach, a strategy that engages the entire ecosystem: teachers, management, learners, parents, and the wider community.
Schools play a pivotal role in shaping attitudes toward gender roles and relationships. Interventions must include a gender-transformative focus from an early age, modelling and promoting gender-equitable norms through curricula on healthy relationships, gender equality, and conflict resolution. For instance, programmes like PREPARE in South Africa have shown positive outcomes in reducing violence by promoting these norms.
Environment of trust
Complementing this, social-emotional learning (SEL) is one of the most promising strategies for mitigating the long-term impacts of exposure to violence. SEL programming equips students with the skills required to recognise and manage emotions, develop empathy, make responsible decisions, and handle challenging situations effectively. By fostering resilience and healthier coping mechanisms, SEL directly counters the normalisation of aggressive behaviours.
Teachers must be equipped with the skills to identify early signs of trauma and abuse and provide initial support to victims.
Corporal punishment, which persists despite being banned in 1998, and which normalises violence as a problem-solving tool, must be eradicated through adherence to clear, non-violent behaviour management strategies.
Recently, in the South African Council of Educators case, the court ruled that educators must be capacitated with the requisite skills to practise positive discipline and promote cultures of non-violence within the classroom. Critically, schools must foster an atmosphere of trust to encourage safe disclosure, ensuring children feel and are safe to report violence without fearing blame or retribution.
Finally, the digital dimension of school safety cannot be ignored. Technology-facilitated violence, which includes cyberbullying, intensifies existing harms and demands a systemic response. School safety policies must explicitly embed child online protection and digital safety, treating them as core components, not “add-ons”.
Essential prevention strategies include media and digital literacy programmes, helping children gain the skills to safely navigate the digital environment, manage risks, and understand how to maintain a positive online reputation presence. Like other forms of violence, programmes that promote SEL, among others, have also been shown to be effective in promoting digital safety.
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Importantly, while a knee-jerk reaction might favour banning cellphones, evidence suggests this approach is unproven and may undermine the development of technical skills and a child’s right to access critical information on health and support services.
The Milnerton incident is a tragic symptom of a broken system that allowed abusive behaviour to fester. While criminal and disciplinary action addresses the immediate incident, lasting change requires that we, as a society, commit to integrated, evidence-based, whole-school strategies. We have examples of programmes and interventions that work in South Africa, as noted in the 2025 Child Gauge.
These need to be funded and replicated across schools. Schools must realise their potential to move beyond the curriculum and become foundational environments where non-violence, gender equity, empathy, and respect are actively taught and lived. This holistic commitment is the only way to truly break the cycle of violence and ensure that every pupil is safe to thrive.
— Patrick Burton is a senior research associate at Tech Legality, is the previous executive director of the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention, and wrote the chapter on schools for the South African Child Gauge 2025 focused on the intersections of violence against women and violence against children, published by the Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town.
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