No child should be afraid to go to school for fear of the conscious, repeated, suppressive and humiliating actions of fellow learners. Notwithstanding the fact that bullying has a variety of negative short and long-term consequences for both bullies and their victims, there is a misperception that bullying is a part of the process of growing up. Against this background, the present article reports on an investigation into aspects of bullying in schools in the Free State, South Africa. It appears that there are few Free State learners who have never been exposed, either as victims and/or as witnesses, to direct and/or indirect verbal bullying. Furthermore, it seems that the victims of bullies prefer to take fellow learners rather than adults into their confidence if they are being victimized. Victims are also more likely to be assisted by fellow learners than by adults. Learners who are willing to help fellow learners prefer to help in cases of verbal rather than physical bullying. The article concludes that educators, parents and learners should accept equal responsibility for the battle against bullying. Bibliogr., sum. in English, text in Afrikaans. [Journal abstract]
