By Alice Markram – Most of the students at De La Salle Holy Cross College High School in Johannesburg are

All children will experience teasing, on and off the playground, which is common especially amongst youngsters. But it’s important to know that it is not okay when the teasing becomes more than just banter, and that it isn’t “a normal part of growing up”.

The media continues to bring to the public’s attention the crisis of violence that plagues many of South Africa’s schools. For example, at the end of last year a video of a girl in Siyathuthuka Secondary School in Inanda, KwaZulu-Natal, went viral.

A Catholic school should ensure that everyone is welcomed and no-one is excluded: all members of the school community are created in God’s image. Further, because all human beings are made in the image and likeness of God, they are therefore valuable and there should be no discrimination,” writes CIE deputy-director Anne Baker.

The Indlulamithi project aims to share sports and academic resources among schools in the Yeoville, Observatory and Bellevue areas, and to work to make routes to schools safer. The project is tied to the Johannesburg Development Agency’s “Our City, Our Block” campaign