How can children traumatised by gang violence flourish in school?

As you read this column, the dramatic flare-up in gang violence is having a destructive effect on lives and learning in some townships.

This violence was always there. But it is much worse now both in frequency and intensity. I am now a direct witness to this terror through my work in schools.

Violence in these townships is seldom random. It is to shut-up a witness ahead of a court hearing; to extract revenge in a tit-for-tat killing; to punish a member for leaving a gang; to assert control over territory.

Of course, there are always people who will be felled in the crossfire but they are not the intended victims.

Great books have been written on the subject such as Don Pinnock’s GANG Town; and there are countless YouTube videos on gang bosses and gang warfare.

There is no shortage of community-based groups trying to facilitate peace among rival gangs. And the popular solution comes up often: send in the army.

Well, the army comes and goes but the problem has remained unresolved over many decades.

The effects on pupils and learning are staggering, and there is a need for a scientific study to both quantify and describe more fully the contours of this problem.

The quarterly online publication, Western Cape Gang Monitor, is exceptional. The stories are remarkably accurate and consistent.

Here are the seven main consequences of gang-based violence on schools in the areas where I work.

First, the loss of learning time. Children are often kept home or their trip to school is delayed because of an outbreak of gang shootings that morning or that week. It happens all the time.

Since the affected schools already struggle with high levels of teacher absenteeism and in-class disruptions by unruly pupils, the added losses of learning time because of gang conflicts is significant.

In environments with few material resources or extra teachers, this is the one available though intangible resource that cannot afford to be squandered. And yet it is.

Small wonder the results in literacy and numeracy have not changed appreciably for decades.

Second, the loss of lives. Somewhere in the existence of a school in these violence-torn areas there is a story of a pupil’s life lost either because that person was recruited into a gang or because he/she was caught in the crossfire.

It is a tragic loss of a life that has not yet even reached young adulthood but it happens despite the best intentions of teachers and parents.

Third, the loss of health. While children might look completely “normal”, living inside or near constant violence has an accumulated effect on the mental and emotional health of these young people.

Many have become desensitised to the violence around them.

It is one of the reasons, I believe, for the turbulence often encountered in classrooms in schools in such communities.

We expect children to act like any other pupils but that expectation, I have come to understand, is completely unreasonable.

Because these are poor schools with few parents or teachers alert to the effects of trauma, children are dismissed as “naughty” or “delinquent” and left undiagnosed.

Fourth, the loss of teachers. In schools surrounded by high levels of gang violence, teachers are traumatised directly or through the behaviour of their pupils.

I have seen first-hand the high level of teacher turnover simply because they cannot handle the consequences of these violent episodes inside schools and classrooms.

This is one of the reasons for high teacher absenteeism since these educators now also suffer with severe health issues such as constant headaches, edginess, and utter exhaustion.

Fifth, the loss of healthy coping mechanisms. Under constant stress, and with few if any resources for managing these pressures, pupils understandably turn to unhealthy and sometimes dangerous coping strategies.

Smoking, vaping, drug abuse, early sexual activity and, sadly, pregnancies in the early grades of high school.

I have learnt not to judge but to understand and support.

The cellphone, I also discovered, offers a powerful distraction from the harsh and unforgiving environment in which they live and (try to) learn.

Unregulated in many homes, pupils watch their series on mobile devices into the early hours and show up tired in school and without the ability to concentrate.

Sixth, the loss of capacity to build positive relationships with others.

In their high stress environments, young people learn to be suspicious and constantly on their guard.

Even a simple reprimand can produce an outsized reaction to another adult such as a teacher or the principal.

The primary reaction to being called out is to deny, sometimes vigorously, even in the face of overwhelming evidence.

Blame someone else even if you’re the culprit. I see this every day.

It is how you defend yourself but it also means that long-term, your ability to cultivate simple social graces, for example, are lost and with that the ability to build trusting relations with others.

It will become a major reason for not being able to find productive work after school.

Seventh, the loss of faith in the redemptive power of education.

We teachers are evangelists. There is only one way out of poverty, we tell the children: education (actually there are other ways, like selling drugs, but they know that).

It is tiring listening to teachers and others trotting out Nelson Mandela’s most cited education quote: something about the only weapon you can use to change the world.

But when your life can be snuffed out by a bullet on the way home, it is hard to buy into this hype.

Next week: what can be done to address this problem. Spoiler alert: it’s not coding and robotics.