JEDDAH, 15 May 2005 — It is not unusual for students to be hitting the books at boys’ schools across the Kingdom. Sadly, some students are hitting each other instead in violent fights that go beyond schoolyard scuffles and sometimes end in death. Some blame teachers or misguided parents or tribalism, but whatever the reasons, schools are becoming dangerous places.
In Rania province, a teacher was injured after a student assaulted him inside his classroom, Al-Madinah newspaper reported. In another incident, a gang fight between nearly 30 students from two different tribes in one of Taif’s schools resulted in injuries to two teachers and three students and required police intervention to break it up.
In another fight between two students inside a school, one pulled a knife and moments later the other was dead from a stab wound to the neck.
Police were also called when a gun-wielding student besieged his school threatening to kill anyone who entered his field of fire. The disgruntled student eventually was subdued and disarmed.
The question that remains unanswered is why many students are substituting knives and guns for books.
One of the reasons for the increase in violence appears to be tribalism.
“Large fights start when two students from two different tribes engage in a fight,” said Hamoud Al-Otaibi, a high-school teacher. “The problem will grow from a small problem to a bigger one, and sometimes they may reach extreme levels and end in killings.”
It is not just a schoolyard problem.
“Most of these fights occur outside the school walls,” Al-Otaibi said. “Unfortunately, some parents know that their children are carrying knives and other weapons. They know about the fights and when they are going to happen, and sometimes they have encouraged their children to take law into their own hands. Police presence is necessary near schools to prevent these fights from starting.”
While some students are learning mathematics and English, others are learning bitter lessons about crime and punishment.
“It started with a disagreement that soon escalated into a fight inside school,” a former student identified only as N. A. told Al-Madinah. “He started to threaten me saying that he wanted to finish the fight outside school. I was afraid that if I didn’t fight him outside school that I would be called a coward. I took a knife with me, and as soon as he started to charge me, I stabbed him in the stomach and watched him die.
And while his former classmates contemplate what they will do with their lives, he sits in a cell wondering if he will have one.
“Now I am waiting on death row,” N.A. said, “either to face death or gain the family’s forgiveness.”
