MAKKAH, 12 April 2006 — Obaid Al-Otaibi has first-hand experience in school violence. Recently, the principal of Al-Shatee high school in Taif and a group of teachers had to break up a fight among an estimated 200 students. Police had to be called in, and 30 students were arrested.
“We failed to end the fight,” he said. “It only ended when large number of police came in.”
The cause, according to Al-Otaibi, was a combination of tribal rivalries and parents that ignore, or even encourage, violent behavior.
“Many factors play role in this problem,” he said. “One factor is that there is no counselor at the school. Another important factor is parents themselves. They play a major role in the problem by encouraging their wards to take revenge.”
While no statistics on school violence is available, there has been a marked increase in reported cases of violence in schools, often targeting teacher for giving out bad grades or humiliating students in front of their peers.
Al-Otaibi said that there are students that are known to be troublemakers but that the system doesn’t offer any recourse for teachers.
“Many students that get involved in fights, whether with students or with teachers, are reported to the Education Ministry. But the ministry doesn’t impose tough punishment on them. Instead it tends to give them another chance to correct their behavior,” said Al-Otaibi.
Al-Otaibi said that he complained many times to police about cases in which students vandalize teachers’ cars, but police tend to treat the case as an internal school matter and not a law-enforcement situation. And when teachers intervene in fights among students, they often receive threats of retribution.
Al-Otaibi emphasized the importance of creating tough laws to stop school fights. Tribal rivalries in particular need to be settled out of class between the groups in a peaceful manner, he said.
“The only way to really ensure that the problem is solved is to have a police presence in schools,” said Al-Otaibi.
Vice Principal Muhammad Al-Ghamdi said that parents play a major role in not solving the problem by encouraging their sons to resort to violence.
“The Education Ministry should take part of the blame because it has done nothing to implement policies to crack down on troublemakers,” said Al-Ghamdi. “This encourages these students to continue with their disturbing behavior. Many times we asked police to be present in front of schools at the time students leave, but there is no cooperation from the police. Many of the teachers’ cars are vandalized by angry students.”
Sultan Al-Otaibi, a high school teacher, said that the weak education system is behind the bad behavior of students.
